Gathering Storm
by soultaker78
Summary: AU set immediately after Legacy Day. As the school reels from Raven's refusal to sign, Raven gains followers to her cause and an insidious person plots her undoing.
1. Chapter 1

Author's notes: this story takes place in continuity after several Monster High and Ever After High stories I've done. Specifically, it takes place shortly after a crossover fic called 'Unplanned Exchange Program'.

...

It was the day after Legacy Day. The student body was still reeling from Raven refusing to sign the Storybook of Legends. It was lunchtime in the Castleteria as the various Royals and Rebels sat in tension. As soon as Raven walked near, all the Royals animosity focused on her.

"I know you're all mad at me," Raven addressed the Royals present: Apple, Daring, Briar, Hopper and Lizzie.

"That's putting it mildly," Lizzie said angrily. "By not signing the Storybook of Legends, you may have prevented everyone from following their destinies. And if I can't become the next Queen of Hearts, then I won't be able to undo the damage to Wonderland inflicted by your mother."

"There's no guarantee," Raven began to counter, "that you beginning the Red Queen will lead to Wonderland becoming better."

"OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!" Lizzie exclaimed. No one around her was worried about this because they knew that she wasn't actually going to go through with it (probably). Furthermore, Raven was not worried because she didn't consider Lizzie to be a serious threat.

"Does anyone have anything else they want to contribute?" Raven asked, un-phased by Lizzie's outburst.

"You selfish bitch," Hopper said with a glare at Raven. "Did you ever stop to think about how this would effect me?"

"Crap," Raven muttered, not having anything off the top of her head to counter how with Hopper's story at risk of never happening, there was a good chance of him spending the rest of his life turning into a frog whenever he got tongue-tied around a girl (which with him, would be often). "I've got nothing for that," she finished with regret.

"Honestly Hooper," Daring began, "I'm surprised you just talked to a girl without frogging out on us."

"My hatred has given me the kind of focus I've only ever dreamed of," Hopper replied grimly.

"Was anyone else creeped out by that?" Raven asked of the people around her.

"Yes," several people answered.

"And let's not forget," Briar spoke up, "that your refusal to sign almost ruined the after-party."

"There are bigger things involved than the after-party, Briar," Daring said, hoping to get her focused.

"Maybe for you," Briar snapped back, "but I'd been looking forward to that party for over half my life." Everyone looked at Briar in puzzlement at her choosing to focus on the party. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Moving on to something else," Raven interjected, "don't you think it's odd that despite Headmaster Grimm's warnings about ceasing to exist if we don't sign the book, I clearly still exist?"

"Headmaster Grimm already hexplained that," Apple spoke up. "You will cease to exist at some unspecified point and will be at danger of that until you sign the book."

"I know he said that," Raven said, "I just don't believe him." The Royals gasped in unison at this.

"How could you not believe Headmaster Grimm?" Apple asked with a combination of confusion and outrage.

 _Crap_ , Raven thought to herself. She had several reasons not to trust the Headmaster but could not share those without revealing secrets that other people confided in her or that Headmaster Grimm wouldn't deny away. Raven was getting very nervous as the assembled Royals starting glaring at her, awaiting an answer that Raven hadn't even begun thinking of. As a result of her anxiety, a silver belt with vertical feather designs and a purple stone in the buckle materialized around Raven's waist.

"What's that?" Briar asked.

"A long story," Apple answered for Raven then faced the (hopefully for her) future evil queen. "You never answered my question."

"It's complicated," Raven replied. Apple paused for a moment, thinking of the right way to express to Raven how she found 'it's complicated' to be a woefully underwhelming answer for Raven risking non-existence and spitting in the face of everything the school stood for.

"Why did you come back here if you weren't going to sign?" Apple asked. Raven took a deep breath as she thought of her answer.

"Because that world was too different from anything I was familiar with," Raven said. "Between having to adjust to a whole new world and living off the generosity of the friends I made there, I decided it was best to come back here because it is what I know."

Apple paused for a while as she thought of a response. While she was thinking, Lizzie was hit from behind by some thrown food. She looked at where it had come from and saw a group of Rebels, with Cerise in the most likely spot where she'd been attacked from. Deciding that Cerise had been responsible, the future queen of hearts grabbed some nearby food and returned fire. Cerise acted on instinct and counterattacked. The opposing groups of Royals and Rebels then went to grab more edible ammunition and prepared to fire.

 _I didn't make it for food fights_ , Raven thought as she saw this, _but since the belt is out I might as well suit up._

"Henshin," Raven said as she channeled almost all her magic into a purple aura around her left hand and put the magic into the belt buckle. This caused a rather bright flash of black light as Raven was instantly surrounded by a suit of black, non-metallic armor with silver lines along the body and large, purple eyes on the face. Raven had changed into Kamen Rider Nocturnal.

The various Rebels and Royals saw the flash and looked at Raven in her armor. They were so perplexed by this that they forgot about getting their food fight underway. Nocturnal had grabbed some food and was ready to throw but stopped when she was everyone looking at her.

"What, we're not doing this?" She asked as she lowered the food in her hand.

"What the hex are you wearing?" Daring asked, vocalizing what was on the minds of everyone who did not previously know about this.

"Long story short," Nocturnal began, "I channel most of my magic into this belt and it conjures this suit around me."

"It's fairy you," Briar said after taking a good look at it. "Though the helmet's a little bland and seriously, what's with the bug eyes?"

"Ummm," Nocturnal stammered, not sure how to answer that.

"I can hexplain that," Holly O'hair chimed in with a smile. "The belt and armor Raven has are fairy similar to ones used by a breed of warriors called Kamen Riders. A lot of these warriors had insect motifs and somehow, that became a universal trait with all of them."

"How do you know that?" Raven asked as she dispelled her armor in another flash of black light.

"Same way I imagine you did," Holly replied. "I used a magic mirror to observe the exploits of many riders. Where'd you get the belt and the abilities?" Holly gasped as a thought occurred to her. "Were you experimented on?" Holly asked with great anticipation.

"I was not experimented on," Raven answered irritably. "I used my magic to create the belt to see if I could give myself rider abilities and it worked."

"That's not a great origin story," Holly said. "Oh who am I kidding: I'd do the same thing if I could. And I just want you to know that I'm sorry."

"For what?" Raven asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"For this," Holly said smiling as she charged Raven and enveloped her in surprisingly tight hug. Holly said some stuff that was hard to make out about how hexcited she was to actually meet a Kamen Rider along with various hexcited squeals. Raven couldn't touch her belt to transform again and was too taken by surprise to focus her magic in such a way that it would separate them.

"Somebody get her off of me!" Raven yelled, causing several people to laugh at this predicament.

 _Not what I wanted to happen but still entertaining_ , Kitty thought as she this from her vantage point on the rafters, only slightly disappointed that her plan to instigate a food fight didn't work out.

...

Everyone calmed down after that and lunch went smoothly. Apple approached Raven about the possibility of having a debate of sorts over their conflicting ideologies after classes. Raven agreed to this, but only if Cupid could stand near her.

They met up in an empty classroom for the interview. Blondie held her mirrortablet, began broadcasting and made an introduction for what was about to happen.

"Now Raven," Apple began calmly. "I know that you don't completely agree with everyone following their parents' footsteps, but it's important for the stories to be retold so they will travel out to other worlds and inspire countless people."

"I find that a convenient position for ... Some people to have," Raven said, having to pause herself from referring to Apple specifically so she didn't make this too personal. "We are all bound by destiny at this school. But the difference is that for some of us, the chain's made of gold and for others, it's the kind shackled to your ankle with a heavy ball on the other end."

Apple paused for a second as she took this in. Despite Raven's best efforts, it was clear that she was talking about Apple and insinuating that Apple only believed in everyone following their pre-assigned fates because she was dealt a good hand.

"And since this school is all about stories," Raven continued, "I'm hoping I can share a new one with everyone watching this."

"Sounds good," Blondie said, always looking to share new content with her viewers.

"It's about something that happened at Monster High," Raven began, then turned to Cupid. "I wasn't there to see it happen but Cupid was, so she'll take it from here."

"Thanks Raven," Cupid said. Ever since Toralei and Raven's switched universes, word had gotten out that Cupid had been at the same school Toralei had come from and that Raven went to. She had been worried at first about sharing this but it had gone well. And now it was about to go better.

"Before I begin, some background information is necessary," Cupid began. "The world I come has a lot of racial tension, both between humans and monsters as well as between different kinds of monsters, particularly werewolves and vampires because they were at war with each other off and on for centuries. So Headmistress Bloodgood extended an invitation to a bunch of werewolf and vampires to come to Monster High in the hopes of fostering good will between the two races."

"Despite a rocky start, things were starting to look up," Cupid continued. "Until this human guy named Van Hellscream showed up saying he wanted to help. What he actually did was get the vampires and werewolves to embrace their own cultures and rubbed salt on old wounds. He almost succeeded in turning Headmistress Bloodgood's attempt at monster unity into a reenactment of the vampire/werewolf wars before he was exposed. After that, things went according to plan with getting vampires and werewolves to get along."

"That's an interesting story, Cupid," Apple said. "But I fail to see what it has to do with the current situation at this school."

"Vanhellscream abused the vampire and werewolves sense of tradition and cultural pride to almost successfully turn back the clock on inter-monster relations," Raven chimed in. "Which I think proves the point I'm about to make: just because things have always been done this way isn't by itself a great reason to keep doing things this way."

Apple stood silent and blinked a few times as she tried to think of a counter to Raven's story.

"Furthermore," Raven continued, "I would like to bring up another point made by Toralei's manifesto."

Of course you read that when you came back, Apple thought to herself.

"Toralei brought up," Raven continued, "how in a powerful wind storm, a tall oak tree will split in half from the storm but a tiny sapling will survive because it bent with the force instead of breaking and that the system of having people follow the roles of their parents is like the oak tree: tall and imposing but rigid and incapable of adapting. Everyone is very tense because I refused to pledge my destiny."

"Yes, people are tense," Apple said in a somewhat scolding tone.

"But when you get down to it," Raven continued, "I'm really just one obstinate teenager. If I can cause so much unrest, what does that say about the system?"

That it's vulnerable to even small disruptions and can't handle things refusing to happen the way it wants, Apple thought. She actually did agree with Raven and Toralie's points about the dangers of cultural rigidity and how tradition doesn't make something infallibly right. Unfortunately, as the most high-profile princess at EA High, she needed to make a token effort to defend the status quo.

"What you're forgetting, Raven," Apple began, "is that without our traditions to act as a framework, there's no idea of what will happen. It would be complete chaos."

"And in that chaos," Raven shot back, "people will be able to make their own choices with what to do with their lives rather than have their choices made for them."

"Do you have any idea how selfish you sound?" Apple said while glaring, getting angry and ignoring their earlier agreement to keep this debate from being personal.

"And how is having me and Hunter," Raven began with a scowl, "accept fates we don't want so you can get everything you want not selfish of you?"

"Because that's just the way it is," Apple said, "and the way it needs to be to keep everything going smoothly."

"And the status quo is incapable of running smoothly without us devoting our entire lives to that," Raven shot back, "as I've already proven. Also, I'd like you to remember the point I tried to make with that story about Vanhellscream. If the current system has its shortcomings, which I've established, what is so wrong about changing it?"

"Because...," Apple paused for a second as she thought of her response and had trouble with that. "Because change is inherently wrong, okay?"

"No, not okay," Raven replied sharply. The two girls glared at each other for a while before Apple spoke up.

"Why did you come back here if you're so set on not following your destiny?" Apple asked.

"Because I thought that there were people here," Raven began, "who gave a crap about me and not just what I can do for them. It's looking increasingly like I was wrong about that," she finished with a malicious tone.

"But I do care about you Raven," Apple said pleadingly. "I care about you so much that I don't want you to stop existing from not signing the Storybook of Legends."

"And yet," Raven started, "you want me to set you on the path to your happily ever after and spend the rest of my life in a dungeon for doing hexactly what was expected of me."

 _Ouch_ , Apple thought to herself, unable to deny how Raven's statement validated her claims of Apple's selfishness. Once again, Apple struggled to come up with a decent counter-argument.

"And another thing," Raven began.

"I'm afraid that's all the time we have," Blondie said, deciding to end this debate before the tide turned against the Royal side even more.


	2. Chapter 2

After the less civil than originally intended debate, Raven left school and went to Meiling's dojo to let off some steam. She changed into workout clothes, put on arm guards and was currently beating the crap out of a sandbag to work on her striking. After going at it furiously for almost ten minutes, she was breathing heavily and stopped to catch her breath. Meiling was lifting free weights nearby and was impressed at Raven's onslaught.

"I thank you for using the sandbag instead of my rinshi," Meiling said, referring to the zombie-like creatures she had and occasionally used as sparring partners.

"Aren't those things supposed to be almost indestructible?" Raven said between deep breaths.

"More like really sturdy," Meiling clarified. "And in your mood, I think you'd put their undead resilience to the test. Keep in mind, it was not easy to get those things cleared by customs. Now would you like to tell me about what's bothering you or continue taking it out on Mr. Sandbag?"

"Can I get another round in then talk about it?" Raven asked and Meiling nodded yes. Raven went back to beating on the sandbag for another few minutes. She then stopped, sat down on the floor and took a swig from her nearby water bottle. Meiling walked over and joined her on the floor.

"What's bothering me," Raven began, "is that Headmaster Grimm is a lying piece of crap and I can't prove it."

"Ah," Meiling said in realization. "This is about how he promised to compromise with you about following your destiny and then backed out of that promise once he'd lured you away from Monster High."

"Yes," Raven said with an angry glare. "If he lied to me about offering compromises in regards to my destiny, maybe he's also lying about how not signing will cause me to cease to exist so I decided to take my chances. Problem is, I try telling people about that, he will deny it and with my word against his, no will believe me. Plus, I'd have to admit to my friends that I'd planned to stay in Monster High for good if I had to."

"You haven't told anyone that?" Meiling asked in shock.

"No, because that would be fairy awkward," Raven replied. "What am I supposed to say to them? That I was willing to leave them for good to make a new life for myself at Monster High and only came back here because Grimm tricked me and had Baba Yaga cast a spell on me that prevents me from going back there?"

"Well, I'd suggest not opening with that," Meiling awkwardly answered. "I just want you to know that while I cannot publicly support you as Michigo, I do believe in your cause."

"Thank you," Raven said. "Although that's not surprising considering how defying tradition is a big part of your story. Where does Finelope fall in all this?"

"That is more complicated," Meiling answered. "She really enjoys all the perks that come with being from royalty but she also doesn't want to conform to all royal lifestyle standards."

Raven was pleased to hear this. She didn't know Finelope that well but with the two having fought together in the battle against Foundation X, she was glad to know that the plus-sized mermaid somewhat knew where Raven was coming from in regards to the free will/destiny conflict. Raven got up and went back to hitting the sandbag.

...

While this was going on, Apple had been called to Headmaster Grimm's office following the live debate.

"You wanted to see me sir," Apple said as she entered the office.

"Yes," Grimm said as he sat in his chair. "I saw the debate you had with Ms. Queen. I did not like how you did such a lackluster job of defending this school's principles."

"I was caught off guard," Apple said with a downtrodden look, not liking where it looked like this was heading.

"I don't see how that's possible," Grimm began, "considering you're on the right side of this matter. The only hexplanation that comes to mind is that you are not the right person to defend the status quo in such a conflicted time. As such, I am removing as you as president of the royal student council, effective immediately."

 _Drat_ , Apple thought. She was tempted to dispute this but that conflicted with her usual, rule-abiding nature. Also, her removal wan not her greatest concern at the moment.

"Maddie continues to be co-president though, right?" Apple asked.

"Yes," Grimm answered, "but only because angering the Rebel and Rebel-leaning students by removing their representative would cause more harm than good."

 _Hexcellent,_ Apple thought _._

"To be clear, Ms. White," Grimm continued, "I'm not just removing you for your poor performance in today's debate. I arranged for you and Raven to be roommates so that you could make her follow her destiny and you failed to do that. I'm starting to wonder just how committed you are to following your destiny."

"I am committed to following my destiny," Apple said. "Unfortunately, Raven is equally committed to defying hers. And as head of this school, isn't making sure Raven pledges her destiny ultimately your responsibility?"

"Technically yes," Grimm began with forced calmness, "but you have to do your part as well if you want to follow your destiny. You can think about how to make Raven change her mind while you spend the next two hours in detention." Grimm finished about began writing the order for her detention on a piece of paper.

"What?" Apple said, completely flabbergasted.

"You heard me," Grimm said as he handed the order for Apple's stint in detention for her to hand over to whoever was handling it that day with a glare that was not-so-subtly implying that attempting to debate this matter would be a great way to be sentenced to more time in detention.

"Yes sir," Apple said as she took the order.

 _This isn't that bad_ , Apple thought as she left the office. _I can use the time to do my thronework and catch up on some reading I've been meaning to do._

...

Apple made her way to the classroom where detention was being held and stepped inside. The only other students in detention today were Sparrow Hood and Kitty Cheshire, which was from surprising since they were what might be considered 'regulars' for detention.

At a desk in the front of the room was the teacher overseeing detention for the day, Arthur Pendragon, taking a leave of absence from ruling Camelot to spend a few semesters in a teaching position at Ever After High to show the next generation of heroes how it's done. Coach Arthur (as he preferred to be called while at the school) was an imposing man at roughly six-foot-seven and always wearing an armored chest-piece with an ornate dragon design carved on it. He had some spots of grey in his brown hair and beard and very chiseled facial features.

"What brings you here, Ms. White?" Coach Arthur asked with a commanding voice.

"Detention," Apple said as he handed Coach Arthur the Grimm's order.

"How did that happen?" Kitty asked playfully.

"I'm curious about that as well," Coach Arthur said. Apple took a seat and began telling them about the circumstances that lead up to her being there.

"... And he gave me detention for pointing that out," Apple concluded. "I would have debated the matter with him, but he looked like he would have given me more time in detention for trying that."

"A wise decision," Coach Arthur commended. "Sparrow was given extra detention six times before he figured that out."

Sparrow only glowered at Coach Arthur for sharing something so embarrassing with one of the hottest girls at EA High. Apple then took out stuff from the bag she brought with her and began her thronework.

...

Sometime during Raven's workout, she had received several urgent texts from Cupid. The adopted daughter of Eros wouldn't say what was urgent, only that Raven needed to come see her at the south side of the school. Raven ended her workout, showered, changed back into her usual dress and got on top of Demona to go meet Cupid. Raven got to the specified location and was surprised at what she saw.

There were many people standing there. There was what Raven considered to be the 'official Rebels', those who had sided with her after Legacy Day which consisted mostly of her immediate friends: Cedar, Maddie, Cerise, Cupid and Hunter. Among them were also Rosabella Beauty, Darling Charming, Melody Piper, Ginger Breadhouse, Lilly Bo Peep, Jillian Beanstalk and both O'Hair sisters.

"What's going on?" Raven asked after riding up to Cupid and dismounting, greatly confused at what so many people were doing here.

"It's fangtastic," Cupid said enthusiastically, so much so that she slipped back into her old school's lingo. "After that debate you had with Apple, people started calling me and saying that they wanted to join the Rebels. That's what they're all here for: to formally join the Rebels in front of you." Raven looked at the group in stunned silence as she walked towards them and thought about what she was going to say.

"I'm... Fairy happy to see so many of you show up," Raven said, struggling to find her composure. "So many of you showing up so quickly after that debate, it's... It's more than I hoped for." Raven took a deep breath before continuing. "Although I am fairy surprised to see some of you here," she said, looking at Darling.

"I have decided," Darling began, "that while I have no personal issues with my destiny, that doesn't mean that everyone should just accept the hands they've been dealt. Also, you bring up fairy good points about how incapable the current the system is with adapting and how it's built to help certain people get their happily ever afters at the expense of others instead of having everyone's best interest at heart."

"That's why I'm here too," Rosabella said. "I have every intention of following my story but I do think that some things need to change."

"Great to have you both here," Raven said and then turned towards Lilly. "You know Apple's not going to be happy when she finds out about you joining this side," Raven said playfully, making a veiled reference to Lilly's unrequited crush on the future Snow White.

"It was because of that story Cupid told," Lilly said, "about that Hellscream guy and how tradition doesn't make something infallibly right."

"Oh," Raven said with wide eyes as she realized that Lilly was referring to how she was the only out-of-the-closet lesbian at EA High and wanted to join the Rebels because she saw parallels between both situations. "Whatever your reason, I'm glad to have you. Does this mean you're giving up on Apple?"

"Yes, because this is more important than my crush on Apple," Lilly explained, then had a sad look on her face. "Besides, she's out of my league anyway."

"Now don't be like that," Poppy said as she walked up to Lilly and put a comforting hand on her face. "You're fairy pretty yourself."

"Are you coming on to me?" Lilly asked.

"Wow, you are fairy desperately lonely, aren't you?" Poppy asked dryly as she withdrew her hand.

"I'm not hearing a no," Lilly replied seductively.

"Bad lesbian," Maddie said as she pulled a spray bottle from her hat and lightly spritzed Lilly. "That's a fairy bad lesbian," Maddie added with two more squirts.

"Sorry about that," Raven said to Lilly. "You'll get used to Maddie. Eventually."

"Can I go next?" Ginger spoke up. Raven looked to her and nodded yes. "I don't want to follow my destiny because I want to spread joy with my baked goods, not misery. Joining the rest of you is probably my best chance at pulling that off so that's why I'm here."

"I'm here," Melody began, "because I have my own ideas about my story. Specifically, I want to lead the rats out of town on a mobile turntable/sound system instead of with a flute. I haven't figured out how to make that work yet but when I do, it's gonna be epic," Melody finished with raised arms and a wide smile.

"I'm sure it will be," Raven answered. "Though I'm a little conflicted about you joining, seeing as how your dad is the teacher of my favorite class and this will probably piss him off."

"Don't worry about that," Melody replied with a dismissive hand wave. "I told dad about this earlier and he understands that this is all about me and not you."

"Good," Raven said.

"And I want to join," Poppy began, "because I really like the idea of not having a pre-determined fate deciding what I'll do with my life."

"As for me," Holly continued, "I have several reasons. Daring and a few others were not happy about I hugged you earlier and tried to intimidate me into remaining loyal. It backfired and now I'm not feeling fairy loyal to that side. Also, Poppy's decided to join and she's the only person whose opinion I really care about. More importantly, this side has it's own Kamen Rider."

"My reasons are pretty personal," Jillian spoke up, "so you'll forgive me for not sharing."

"That's fine," Raven said then put her hand to her mouth and lowered her head like she was about to cry. "I had no idea that so many people would join me this soon after Legacy Day. Thank you."


	3. Chapter 3

Right after the meeting with all the new Rebels, Maddie told Raven that there was another potential new recruit that didn't want to talk to her in front of everyone else. When everyone had gone their separate ways, Raven went to a spot outside the school that Maddie had told her to go to and was looking around for whoever she was supposed to meet.

Kitty materialized behind Raven holding a brown paper bag that had a pocket of air sealed in it. She punched the bag to make a loud popping sound. Raven made no audible response as she quickly turned around to face Kitty.

"That was less fun I hexpected," Kitty said in disappointment (which was hard to tell due to her prima-grin).

"You're the new recruit Maddie wanted me to meet?" Raven asked with a mixture of annoyance surprise.

"Sort of," Kitty began. "I have no interest in joining you formally because I think it might get in the way of me doing whatever I want, whenever I want to whoever I want to do it to. However, I will help the rebel movement from time to time."

"I'm wondering if I even want any help from you," Raven countered with disdain as she crossed her arms.

"Is this about that thing with Cerise?" Kitty asked and Raven answered with a glare. "I thought settled that."

(Begin flashback)

 _It was soon after Kitty's failed attempt to expose Cerise's true nature to the school. Raven and Cerise had cornered Kitty in a secluded spot near the school to discuss what had happened._

 _"Why do you try to do that to Cerise?" Raven asked Kitty with a scowl._

 _"Same reason I do most things," Kitty replied with her trademark smile. "For poops and giggles." This caused Raven to intensify her scowl and Cerise to let out a low growl._

 _"Now look here Kitty," Cerise said as walked up to Kitty and put her face next to the cat girl's. "My family and I would get in a lot of trouble if the truth about me were to come out. How much trouble do you think I'd get into on top of that for mauling you to near-death?"_

 _"A relatively small amount," Kitty said nervously despite her ever-present grin._

 _"Correct," Raven chimed in. "And keep in mind that Baba Yaga really wants me to start embracing evil as part of my destiny. I might be tempted to start that by doing evil unto you."_

 _"Don't be fooled by the grin: I'm fairy scared right now," Kitty said in a tone that confirmed her words._

 _"Scared enough to keep your mouth shut?" Cerise asked menacingly._

 _"Yup," Kitty answered._

(End flashback)

"I'm pretty sure that scaring you into keeping quite doesn't fit most definitions of settled," Raven deadpanned.

"So you don't like me," Kitty began. "That's too bad because I'm starting to like you. You've spread quite a bit of chaos with your refusal to sign."

"And that's why you want to help the Rebels? I've seen how pissed Lizzie is at me because she thinks the rebellion I've started will prevent Wonderland from ever getting better and you don't seem to have a great reason to prevent that."

"The situation with Wonderland is complicated. While I like Lizzie, I don't share her belief that her becoming the next Red Queen will automatically guarantee Wonderland's recovery. More importantly, Wonderland is a state of mind as much as it's a place and your mission to gain the right for everyone to choose their own paths is consistent with that state of mind. That's why I think it's important to spread those ideas given the lack of a guaranteed method to save Wonderland."

Raven paused as she processed all this. She wasn't completely happy about how Kitty liked how she was causing so much unrest. On the other hand, Raven needed all the help she could get.

"Glad to have you," Raven said as she extended her hand.

"You're fairy welcome," Kitty said as she took Raven's hand and they shook on their alliance then seperated. "Just keep in mind that any help I'll give won't be unconditional. I have no intention of laying down my life for your crusade."

"That's fine," Raven agreed. "That's not exactly my idea of plan A either."

The shared a brief laugh at this before going their own ways.

….

Later that night, Raven and Apple were in their dorm room getting ready for bed. Raven was smiling, feeling fairy good after venting her frustrations at Meiling's and having the rebel movement's size practically triple.

Apple felt conflicted as she looked at Raven's contentment. On one hand, she was happy for her roommate that she was in such a good mood given the day's earlier events but on the other hand, after having seen a mirrorblog post from Blondie about the recent surge in rebel membership, she knew that Raven was happy because the rebel movement was starting to gain serious momentum which did not bode well for how Apple wanted things to turn out. While Apple was dealing with this, Raven saw the worried face and went over to her.

"What's wrong?" Raven asked. "Detention didn't go well?"

"How do you know about that?" Apple asked then rolled her eyes in delayed realization. "Blondie."

"Nope," Raven replied. "Sparrow and Kitty have been spreading news about that on MyChapter ever since they got out." Raven had an awkward look on her face, then took a deep breath. "I'm sorry that Grimm gave you detention because me."

"It's not your fault that he did that," Apple said, surprised that Sparrow and Kitty shared that with everyone.

 _They must be hoping to get back at him somehow_ , Apple deduced, _for giving them detention so many times._

"There's something I want your opinion about," Raven began. "I had a dream a few days ago. In this dream, I go to one of Briar's parties wearing the pelt of your snow fox Gala over my shoulders. Everyone, including you, is hexstatic to see that I killed Gala because it means that I'm on my way to becoming irredeemably evil and changing my mind about following my destiny."

Apple's eyes widened as she took this and formulated a response.

"Please don't kill Gala," Apple said.

"I won't," Raven answered. "Although if I did, it would put me to on the path to evil: maybe even ensure that I do hexactly what you and Headmaster Grimm want me to do."

"Oh, I see where this is going," Apple said worriedly. "You're saying that I might not want to follow my destiny if it means paying a high price for it."

"Yes," Raven admitted. "Let's take a look at your destiny: you go on the run for a bit, hide out with some dwarves, go into a poisoned coma for like a week then get kissed by Daring and receive everything your heart desires. Maybe the reason you're so stoked to follow your destiny is because it involves getting a lot of reward for not-a-lot of adversity."

"Huh," Apple said as she put her hand under chin. "I'll have to think about that."

"You're taking this surprisingly well," Raven said in surprise. "I was hexpecting you to be upset for questioning your determination. Then I would counter that if I really wanted to put you in an awkward position, then I would have brought this up during our public debate earlier."

"Noted," Apple conceded. She began thinking over everything Raven had brought up and then heard a knock on the door. Apple went to the door and opened it, seeing Cupid standing in the hallway.

"Cupid," Apple said aloud. "What are you doing..."

"Oh crap," Raven said as she went over to them and let Cupid inside. "I completely forgot to bring this up earlier, Apple. Long story short, I left my old Mirrorphone at Monster High and can use it to contact mine and Cupid's mutual friends over there. Since I can only talk to them when they're at the soft spot between worlds, in the catacombs underneath their school, the most convenient time for both of us due to the time difference is right before they go to class."

"Okay," Apple said as she took this in. After meeting Toralei, she knew that the monsters weren't really that different from humans. But the problem was that these particular monsters were Raven's friends and with things being awkward between the two of them, Apple didn't think this was the best time to meet the ghouls.

"I'll step outside then. How long do you think you'll be?"

"I can create and an inaudibility bubble around me and Cupid so you don't have to leave," Raven explained, then went over to her magic mirror with Cupid. She created the aforementioned bubble and used the mirror to establish a connection with her old phone. An image appeared on the mirror of two strange looking girls: one appeared to be a werewolf and the other had greenish skin with black and white hair.

Apple had no idea what they were talking about as she watched them. A thought did occur to her that she would have to ask Raven about later. After about ten minutes, the mirror turned off as they finished their conversation. Cupid said goodbye as she left the room.

"Since when can you create inaudibility bubbles?" Apple asked. "That's impressive compared to how you've struggled with your magic before."

"Oh boy," Raven said worriedly as she rubbed her chin. "This is pretty awkward." Raven took a deep breath as she steadied herself. "Ever since Legacy Day, my magic has gotten more... Awesome."

"Awesome in what ways?" Apple asked.

"I am so glad you asked," Raven replied with a grin. She was worried about what would happen if she started bringing up yet another consequence of Legacy Day but it looked like she was worried for nothing. "I can now safely tap into more of my magic than used to. I also think my magic is more energy efficient not because I can do stuff with less energy cost. Also, I can make these now," Raven continued as she held up her hand and conjured what appeared to be a small dagger of dark purple energy.

"I know it doesn't look impressive but when I throw it, it shoots out faster than an arrow," she explained as she made the dagger disappear. She then conjured her guitar/battle axe weapon, the Night Axe, into existence. "I've also gotten two more spells I can do on this thing. I can create a sort of sonic shield around me and also this."

Raven played a few strings on the guitar, which caused a human-sized mass of purple fire to appear next to her. The fire quickly subsided and in its place now stood a duplicate of Raven without the Night Axe.

"Okay," Apple said as she processed what she just saw, only slightly surprised that Raven could now create a duplicate of herself. "Pleased to meet you, other Raven," Apple said as she extended her hand. The duplicate shook it and smiled but said nothing as their hands separated.

"She doesn't talk," Raven explained.

"Why?"

"She won't say."

"Does she have a name? I only ask because referring to her as the duplicate in my mind seems a little rude."

"I haven't thought of one yet. I know Evan calls his E2 so I was thinking of going with R2 but that seems impersonal. Also, I don't want to copy Evan on anything."

"That is fairy understandable," Apple said. "I take it you found out what Evan called his duplicate when you worked with him against those Foundation X people." Raven confirmed this and Apple put her hand under her chin as she thought of possible names for Raven's duplicate. "What about Maggie?"

"How'd you come up with that one?" Raven asked as she quirked on eyebrow in puzzlement.

"Well, a bird similar to a raven is a crow," Apple began, "and another name for a crow is a magpie, so Maggie." They both looked at the duplicate, who smiled as though she liked the name.

"Maggie it is then," Raven said as she dispelled Maggie away. "I'll call her when I need her."

"What do you think you'll need her for?" Apple asked.

"No idea really, but luck favors the prepared," Raven answered. "I didn't think to show this earlier but if I use the duplication spell while transformed, Maggie will get armor of her own. She can even use up to six of those energy daggers I showed you earlier even though as a duplicate, she's not supposed to have any magic."

"Really," Apple said intrigued. "Any idea why that is?"

"Not really, but if I had to guess," Raven continued, "I think it might be because the belt I use to create the armor stores some of my magic and a little bit of it goes to Maggie when she gets her armor."

"I see," Apple said and then had a look on her face like something was bothering her.

"What is it?" Raven asked.

"I just think it's interesting," Apple began, "that these new powers of yours seem to work well with your rider abilities."

"Huh, never thought about that but your right," Raven said with her hand under her chin.

Raven and Apple started getting ready for bed. Apple laid down on the bed and tried to not think of how it was looking increasingly likely that she wasn't going to be able to follow her destiny.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's notes: to address who ever anonymously asked about it, this is not going to be a RavenxApple story, though their relationship and how the Rebel/Royal conflict affects it will be a major element.

…..

Morning the following day, the students of EA High at gathered in the Castleteria for breakfast. Unsurprisingly, all of the rebels had gathered at the same table.

"I didn't get a chance to ask you this yesterday Raven," Holly began while sitting across of from teenaged sorceress/Kamen Rider, "but who is your favorite Kamen Rider? Mine is Shigeru Jo, AKA Kamen Rider Stronger because he was incredibly tough and had a super mode that was so powerful, he'd explode from all the energy if he didn't use it up in a minute."

"I would have to go with Gentaro Kisarargi, AKA Kamen Rider Fourze," Raven answered.

"That's not surprising," Holly answered with a grin.

"What do you mean?" Raven asked.

"Its not really surprising," Holly began, "that your favorite Rider would be a guy who made friends, kicked ass, won the respect of people who initially hated his guts and eventually saved his school from the evil machinations of the guy running it."

Everyone around them stopped eating for a moment as Holly's words sunk in and they definitely saw some parallels between this Kamen Rider and what were likely Raven's goals in life.

"Never thought about it like that," Raven said and then continued eating. "I thought it was because one of his many weapons was a chainsaw attached to his leg."

"Also a good reason," Holly admitted with a wide grin.

 _I should start brushing up on these guys_ , several of the rebels around them thought.

"So tell me Raven," Darling spoke up, "how good of a fighter have you become trying to emulate these Riders?"

"Well, that's hard to say," Raven answered. She didn't feel comfortable talking about the greatest fight of her life, the battle with Foundation X, in the Castelteria where anyone could overhear them. Plus, she wasn't super proud of that battle because the major factor in her surviving it was the timely involvement of Tsukasa Kodayo, AKA Kamen Rider Decade. This lead her to decided not to bring it up. "I've been practicing for any real battles that might happen, but I don't really know what I'm doing. I'm treating it like a hobby more than anything else."

"I see," Darling said, deciding that a test for Raven's abilities as a fighter was in order.

While this was going on, the Rebel group was being glared at by Daring over at another table populated by the main Royals.

"You're worried about the recent surge in Rebel membership, aren't you?" Apple asked, standing across from him.

"No, I'm not," Daring confidently stated. "Worry would imply that I am scared and I'm not scared of anything, especially Raven," Daring stated with almost tangible scorn.

"Spare us the tough guy talk, Daring," Briar said with a stern look and folded arms. "You wouldn't have spent the last minute trying to glare Raven out of existence if she wasn't getting under your skin."

"I won't deny that," Daring said then turned towards Apple. "To answer your question, right now I'm more angry that Raven has turned my sister against me and that my attempts last night to make Darling see reason did not go according to plan."

"That's one way to describe what happened," Dexter spoke up. "Another way is to say that your attempts at trying to belittle her into changing her mind about being a part of the Rebels only made her determined to stay in their camp."

"Whose side are you on, Dexter?" Daring asked with an angry glare at his brother.

"The Royal side, of course," Dexter answered nervously. "I'm just attempting to hexplain why your chat with Darling last night didn't go the way you were hoping." Dexter paused to clean his glasses. "While we're talking about her, seeing as how she's agreed to follow her destiny, whatever it ends up being, I don't think there's any harm in letting her hexpress herself by sympathizing with the Rebels."

"She's not supposed to hexpress herself, she's supposed to do what's told," the more handsome Charming brother shot back.

"Careful Daring," Apple said. "I said something similar yesterday and look how that turned out."

"Oh yeah," Daring said awkwardly, seeing Apple's point and not feeling great about how being so focused on Raven and his sister made him forgot about Apple's recent problem of being kicked out of the Royal student council. "My apologies, Apple. I've been so focused on how Raven is attempting to destroy this school that I forgot what you've been going through. I have something in mind to take your mind off of those problems."

"And what's that?" Apple asked.

"For us to start formally dating, of course," Daring said while he flashed one of his non-blinding smiles. "What do you say we grab coffee after classes?"

"Absolutely," Apple replied with more enthusiasm than she felt. She wasn't actually that interested in going out with Daring but it would be weird if she turned him down now that he was no longer interested in flirting with practically every girl in school except her. _And it might actually take my mind off everything going on right now_ , Apple mentally added.

"Oh, did I just hear that you two are actually going out now?" Blondie said as she suddenly came up to this group.

 _How does she do that?_ Apple asked herself mentally in regards to Blondie's uncanny ability to simply appear in the presence of any news-worthy information.

"That's right Blondie," Apple said. "And we'll tell you about how it goes afterward."

"If we feel like it," Daring added with a hint of aggression. "That debate yesterday was your idea. You gave Raven the opportunity to spread her dangerous ideas throughout the school. And since you made the debate live, you couldn't edit it so Raven looked less persuasive. If you really are on the Royal side, you better start acting like it."

"Okay," Blondie said awkwardly. She knew something like this would happen. The live debate had been her idea and it had gone well for boosting Rebel membership. Not surprisingly, some of the Royals were blaming her for all that. She wasn't worried as long as it didn't affect viewership of her mirrorblog.

"Isn't that a little harsh, Daring?" Apple asked with a glare.

"Maybe," Daring admitted and then faced Blondie. "Apologies, Blondie. I'm concerned that if something isn't done soon, the Rebels will gain more momentum," he finished while resuming glaring at the Rebel table, contemplating ways to trip them up.

...

A few hours later, it was lunch time. Daring had told Blondie that he wanted to have an interview for his reaction to the recent increase in Rebel membership. After eating, the two of them went to outside the Castleteria.

"Thanks for giving me this hexclusive, Daring," Blondie said.

"You're fairy welcome," Daring replied as he grabbed a piece of paper from his jacket. "I'm hoping you're so grateful that you'll stick to this script I wrote."

"What?" Blondie said in shock as she took Daring's script. She felt conflicted about this script matter: on one hand, doing the interview on Daring's terms would be a pretty big departure from what she knew about journalistic integrity but on the other hand, she needed all the help she could get to undo the damage caused by the debate and this hexclusive could help with that. "There's nothing about Darling in here," Blondie said after reading the short script.

"Because I don't want to talk about that," Daring answered.

"Daring, people will think it's weird that I don't ask you how feel about your sister joining the rebels."

"I'll worry about that later: just stick to the script."

"Fine," Blondie relented as she took out her mirrorpad, took a few deep breaths to get into 'reporter mode' and started recording while holding the mirrorpad's camera towards herself. "What's up Ever After? I'm here with Daring Charming to get his opinion on the recent surge in Rebel membership. Your thoughts, Daring," Blondie finished as she faced the camera towards him.

"Thanks Blondie," Daring said. "It's important to keep in mind that the Rebels' selfishness threatens to destabilize our entire way of life."

"But some of the Rebels actually want to follow their destinies," Blondie recited from the script she'd been given, "so long as others have the option of making their own life choices."

"Not going into how that position enables the selfishness of others," Daring continued, "Let's take a look at some of the people who feel that way. Maddie is insane and doesn't know any better, Holly is a traitor to the Royals so her opinion doesn't count, because of Lilly's gayness she is more inclined to go against the normal way of doing things, due to Cedar being a puppet she has fairy wrong ideas about individual free will being more important than what's best for everyone and Rosabella's only joined the Rebels because she's trying to take advantage of all the attention Raven's getting to spread some of it to her various causes. In other words, she's using Raven. This should all be kept in mind about Raven's new recruits."

"That's definitely something to think about, Daring. Thank you for your time," Blondie said as she turned off the tablet and ended the interview.

"That went hexcellently," Daring said with a grin. "With that taken care off, there's another thing we need to go over. I need you to start using your mirrorblog to endorse the Royals and demonize the Rebels."

"What?!" Blondie exclaimed. "That's even worse than the script thing! It goes against everything I know about journalistic integrity."

"Then it's a good thing I don't care about that," Daring shot back with a glare. "And if you're concerned about becoming a serious journalist one day, think about how hard that will be when the ratings for your mirrorblog take a major hit. That's what's going to happen when I talk the other Roayls into boycotting you because you haven't been showing proper loyalty to the Royal side."

Blondie thought over this for about thirty seconds and then decided to say the first thing that came to her mind.

"You're a dick, Daring," Blondie said.

"That's fair," Daring replied. "There are people like Lizzie and Hopper who have a lot riding on fulfilling their destinies which might not happen because of Raven. To help them, I'll be as big a dick as I need to be."

Blondie began thinking over Daring's words. Raven did need to be stopped to prevent all the chaos that spread from people not following their pre-assigned roles. And that's not just right.

"You're absolutely right: Raven needs to stopped," Blondie answered.

"Hexcellent," Daring said, then shook Blondie's hand to signify their understanding.

...

While this was going on, Hopper stepped outside the Castleteria. Someone had left a note in his locker, asking him to meet up to discuss ways of making Raven pay for Legacy Day.

"Hello Hopper," Evan greeted the future frog prince.

"Why am I not surprised?" Hopper deadpanned. He quickly deduced that Evan had reached out discreetly because Evan (correctly) feared that Hopper would turn him down if asked directly. But since Hopper was here and prepared to ignore whatever he said, there was no harm in hearing him out. "What do you want?"

"To make Raven pay, like I wrote earlier," Evan said. "We need to get things back on track to the way they're supposed to be: I know you understand this better than most."

 _Damn he's good_ , Hopper thought in regards to how Evan knew to hit him where it hurt.

"I have some ideas in mind but I might need help later," Evan continued. "Are you in?"

"I'm not agreeing to anything until I know what it is I'm agreeing to," Hopper answered.

"Right now, all I'm asking is for you to keep an open mind," Evan said with a devious grin. "And it looks you will."


	5. Chapter 5

After classes that day, the Royal Student Council had convened to talk about who might be replacing Apple as co-president.

"I would like to recommend myself," Duchess Swan spoke up.

 _Of course you would_ , Briar thought to herself.

"And why do you think you should be co-president?" Briar asked.

"Because no one is more determined than me to maintain the school's status quo," Duchess said. "My story does not end well but despite that, I still want to go through with it so that the story will live on and by extension, so will I. Who better than me to represent our ideology?"

"That is a very good point," Hopper said, causing several others to nod in agreement.

 _That actually worked?_ Duchess asked herself in surprise. She was expecting to do something along the lines of sneakery and betrayal to secure her position as Apple's replacement. _Better not let my guard down: it may yet come to that._

A few more people plead their cases to take over for Apple but no one got the kind of reaction Duchess got.

...

During the student council meeting, Apple decided to get together with Humphrey Dumpty. Apple had decided to start confiding in him about personal stuff ever since an incident during a che-myth-stry project they worked on together (1). The two of them sat across from each other in an empty classroom and Apple was wearing her red glasses that she needed but never wore as a sign of how much she trusted him.

"What's bothering you, Apple?" Humphrey asked. "Not taking being impeached as president well?"

"It's not that," Apple answered. "Normally I'd have fallen to pieces over that but I've got much bigger things to worry about. I want to follow my destiny and think that everyone should follow theirs as well but Raven brings up some very good points about the shortcomings of the current system that cannot be ignored."

"Yeah, this whole thing is more complicated than Grimm and Daring want us to believe it is," Humphrey said. "For example: I'm not super interested in following my destiny but I don't want to stand with the Rebels because I like my place in the school's social ladder. I'm like upper-middle class: not on top but still fairy well off. By the way, I'm really hoping you'll keep that to yourself."

"Of course I will," Apple replied. "I've trusted you with quite a bit so I won't tell anyone about that." Apple paused as she took on a confused expression. "I noticed you didn't say anything about going poof."

"Yeah, about that," Humphrey said awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Let's go over a few things: Grimm says that we'll go poof if we don't sign the Storybook of Legends, Raven decides to call his bluff about this and stubbornly continues to exist then Grimm hexplains to everyone that Raven misunderstood him and will eventually go poof. You don't think it's a little suspiciously convenient that his hexplanation covers why Raven didn't immediately go poof and that he was never bluffing about that?"

"Not until just now," Apple said with a somewhat confused tone. "But the headmaster was appointed by several different kings and queens, including my mother. Do you think they'd put someone in charge who'd lie about us going poof?"

"Let's look at it from his perspective," Humphrey began. "He has a quite a bit of prestige and status with running this school and with making sure his students follow their parents' footsteps: the same parents who, as you established, are responsible for him having his position. Maybe he thinks keeping those parents happy is more important than doing it honestly."

"That's ... not impossible," Apple replied.

"And another thing: if Headmaster Grimm is so great, then how does he justify keeping Professor Rumplestiltskin on staff?"

"Because Professor Rumplestiltskin is a highly qualified teacher so he's given leeway with how he teaches."

"If he's such a great teacher, then why doesn't everyone adopt his teaching style of setting us up to fail and then working it off with hextra credit?"

There was an awkward silence in the room as Apple had no immediate counter for that.

"Maybe he doesn't know about the specifics of Rumpletilitskin's teaching methods," Apple meekly offered.

"That would mean," Humphrey boldly continued, "that the person our parents trust with our safety has fairy little idea of what actually goes on at the school he's supposed to be in charge of." Apple's eyes widened in horror as that possibility opened up a plethora of disturbing implications. "And that would hexplain why he didn't do anything about Raven disappearing."

"To be fair," Apple retorted, "I waited thirty-six hours before I started worrying about that."

"And when you did, you found out what happened to Raven and that Toralei had come to this school because he hadn't done anything to get answers."

"That's not what happened. Officially, Toralei turned herself in to me because she had no idea about how she was going to get back to Monster High and was hoping I would negotiate with headmaster Grimm to have her punishment for that manifesto she wrote take the form of banishment from this world. She actually didn't need me for that though: Headmaster Grimm was plenty eager on his own to get rid of Toralei."

"I know that. But I don't think it's a coincidence that I give you the means to hack Kitty's phone because you thought she was involved in Raven's disappearance and less than eight hours later, you find out about Toralei being here and what happened to Raven. Would you mind filling in the gaps for me?"

"After using your app on Kitty's phone, I learned that Kitty and Maddie had been harboring her since she arrived. When I found Toralei in their room, everything happened like I already described."

"Thank you," Humphrey said and then took a deep breath. "Now Apple, you probably won't like what I'm about to say but please keep an open mind. What is the worst thing that would happen to you if you couldn't fulfill your destiny?"

"I'll cease to exist," Apple replied matter-of-factly.

"Besides that I mean," Humphrey said.

"What do you mean 'besides that'?" Apple almost shouted back. "There is nothing besides that: Literally!"

"For the sake of argument," Humphrey continued, "Let's assume that you can't fulfill your destiny but continue to exist afterwards which, as we've previously established, might be the case. What would be the worst-case scenario then?" Apple pondered this for a moment as she formulated her answer.

"I wouldn't get to be queen," Apple began, "and use my position to help people. I'd also have to live the shame of being the first of Snow White's descendants in two-hundred years not to follow in her footsteps." Apple paused as she tried to think of more downsides. "That might be it."

 _I can't help but notice that you didn't say anything about Daring,_ Humphrey thought. He couldn't stop himself from thinking that maybe Apple didn't like Daring that much and that he might have a chance with Apple. Humphrey almost immediately buried those thoughts as soon as they emerged. He did like Apple but couldn't act on those feelings because of many reasons, the most prominent being that Apple trusted him quite a bit and if she felt like Humphrey abused that trust to win her over, it would take her to a bad place. _She's also way out of my league._

"Apple," Humphrey said in a very compassionate tone as he held her hand reassuringly. "You are beautiful, kind, smart and from a wealthy family: I'm sure there are many other forms of greatness outside of being queen that you can obtain."

Apple's eyes slightly teared up as she was touched by Humphrey's words of encouragement. She then went to hug Humphrey as a show of gratitude. "Thank you for that."

"No problem," Humphrey said before they broke apart. "Once again, please keep everything I said to yourself. I like where I am in the school's social ladder and that would be jeopardized if word got out about my Rebel leanings or how critical I am of Headmaster Grimm. You know how much this school is against the idea of people trying to rock the boat." Upon hearing this, Apple had a conflicted look on her face. "What is it?"

"What you just said made me think of something," Apple began. "I want people to follow their destinies because I believe strongly in the stability that comes from there being a plan for everyone and everyone following that plan because the alternative of there not being a plan is too horrifying to consider. But as you just pointed out, a great way to bring about stability is to make people too afraid to voice dissenting opinions, which I am not okay with. It's fairy confusing but I'm not worried. Thanks to you, I feel ready to handle anything."

Apple hugged Humphrey again, took off her glasses and then left.

…..

Author's notes: (1) this incident happened in a one-shot of mine called 'Breakdown'.


	6. Chapter 6

At the same time as the student council meeting as well as Apple and Humphrey's chit-chat, Jillian Beanstalk had invited Raven to go on a mini-adventure with her into the dark forest. They were walking through the woods and looking for something interesting when a man in white, ornate armor came from the forest and stood in their path.

"Raven Queen," the White Knight said in a commanding voice, "from what I understand, you fancy yourself a warrior. I wish to put you to the test," the white knight finished by unsheathing sword on his side.

"Sounds good to me," Raven said with a smirk as the Nocturnal Driver appeared around her waist and her right hand glowed with her magic. She rarely got a chance to show people the fruits of all her training with Meiling and was eager for such a chance: hexspecially if it was to one of the pompous Knights-in-training from heroics class who Raven had angered with her actions from Legacy Day, which she assumed this guy was. "Henshin!"

Raven put glowing hand on the belt buckle and with a flash of black light was transformed into Kamen Rider Nocturnal. Once changed there was another flash as Nocturnal's weapon, a guitar/battle axe hybrid she dubbed the Night Axe, appeared in her hands with her holding it like an axe.

 _I hope you know what your doing, luv_ , Jillian thought to herself, her concern not for Raven.

The White Knight charged Nocturnal and executed a horizontal slash that the dark Kamen Rider evaded by quickly stepping back. Nocturnal delivered a swipe of her axe to the White Knight's left arm, knocking the knight off-balance a bit.

The two of them fought for a bit, Nocturnal easily dodging the knight's sword while delivering axe swings. After a while, Nocturnal moved to the knight's left side and delivered another swipe to the knight's left knee, toppling him to the ground. Nocturnal stood on top of the knight, kicked his sword out of his reach and then held her axe over her head.

"Do you yield or am I going to have to use this as a can opener?" The dark rider asked threateningly.

"I yield, I yield," the White Knight said in a panic, with a feminine voice that was completely different from what 'he' used earlier.

"That's weird," Nocturnal said in confusion as she lowered her axe. She then kicked the White Knight's helmet off to reveal the face of...

"Darling?!" Nocturnal cried out in shock as she took in the sight of the princess Charming somehow filling in a suit of armor should be five sizes too big for her. "What the hex is going on here?"

"I can hexplain everything," Darling began, "if you help me up first."

"All right," Nocturnal agreed. She dematerialized her axe, helped Darling get up and then dispelled her armor.

"Please step back," Darling said. After Raven complied, the chest piece of her armor opened like a pair double doors and stair-like ramps lowered from the thighs, going from the knees to the ground. Raven saw some mechanical contraptions inside the armor that no doubt allowed Darling to move in it despite her shortness.

 _That answers one question but still leaves so many others_ , Raven thought.

Once she stepped away from the armor, Darling began hexplaining how she one day hopped to be a knight instead of a damsel in distress. To that end, she'd made some modifications to a suit of armor her family possessed and secretly trained.

"I also go on adventures some times," Darling continued. "I ran into Jillian on one, decided that we had so much in common that it was safe to tell her the truth about me so I did and we became friends after that."

"It's not a coincidence that this meeting happened, is it?" Raven asked Jillian.

"No it's not," Jillian answered. "After seeing you transform in the Castleteria, Darling wanted to do a little test to see who's armor was better: yours or hers."

"And yours passed," Darling finished. "Though I could also tell that you possess real skill. Apparently I'm not the only one who's been training in secret. Anyway, the test confirmed what I already suspected: your armor is superior to mine in several ways. It's sleeker, instantly deployable and enhances your strength. That's why, if possible, I'd like one."

"There's a slight problem there," Raven replied nervously. "I have no idea how to do that. I spent a long time focusing on bringing the belt I use into existence from my magic and it works by converting my magic into the armor. It's a fairy personal process and I have no idea how I'd even go about trying to replicate it for someone else."

"I was worried about that," Darling said. "I'll continue looking for other ways to create armor similar to yours. Would it be too much to ask for you to also look into ways to replicate the process for me?"

"Of course not," Raven said with a smile.

 _It would be great to have a friend who's also a Kamen Rider_ , she thought. _I wonder if I should introduce her to Meiling: they'd probably have a lot in common. But I probably shouldn't due to Meiling's need for secrecy._

"If you do get armor like Raven's," Jillian said as she put a hand on the white knight armor, "then having this would be rather superfluous, don't cha think?"

"Yes Jillian," Darling began with a somewhat exasperated tone, "you can have the white knight armor when I'm done with it."

"Yay," Jillian said with a brief jump for joy.

 _I make the strangest friends_ , Raven thought to herself in regards to adding a princess desiring knighthood to her list of close friends along with the girl hiding that she's part werewolf, an overweight mermaid and a girl that's a warrior-in-training who sometimes pretends to be a princess.

...

Sometime later, Raven was done with Jillian and Darling and headed back to school on Demona. She went into the stables next to the school and found Briar inside, brushing the mane of her pet unicorn, Divacorn.

 _This could get awkward_ , Raven (in her rider armor) thought as she dismounted from Demona and summoned an infernal portal in the ground that Demona jumped into to go back to the plane of existence she called home. Raven did this at the school's stables because it was the one place next to the school where going up to it on horseback was not weird.

Running into Briar when it was just the two of them reminded Raven of an encounter that happened before Legacy Day.

…..

(Begin Flashback)

 _Briar had just thrown another one of her famously fantastic parties. Many people came and everyone had a great time. Things had been winding down for a while and some of Briar's closest friends were helping with cleanup before calling it a night._

 _"Now aren't you glad you came, Raven," Briar said to the future Evil Queen. Raven had initially been reluctant but that had changed with a little needling from Briar and Apple._

 _"Yes, I am," Raven said then had a dour look on her face._

 _"What's wrong?" Briar asked in concern. Raven took a deep breath before continuing._

 _"I know this is fairy awkward subject," Raven began, "and I probably shouldn't bring this up but this party has made me realize how much I'm going to miss you."_

 _"Oh," Briar said as she struggled to formulate a response. It was something of an unwritten rule that no one talked to Briar about her hundred-year sleep and how everyone she knew would be dead when she woke up. Briar had thought about this from time to time but it had been so long since she was directly confronted with the subject, she was caught off-guard. She took a deep breath before speaking._

 _"I'll miss you too, Raven," Briar said as she quickly hugged the future evil queen and released. "But I have to go through it."_

 _"I know," Raven said, wanting to dispute the matter further but choosing not to._

(End Flashback)

…

"That's different," Briar said as she saw Demona's exit. Raven dispelled her armor and faced Briar.

"I'm fairy glad I ran into you," Raven said as she awkwardly rubbed her left arm as it limply hung to her side. "I know things have been tense lately but I need you to know that after everything that's happened, I'm still going to miss you." There was an awkward silence for a while as Briar thought of her response.

"I'll miss you too," Briar said with heartfelt sincerity, pleased to hear the words from Raven but also conflicted with how she felt about the Rebel/Royal conflict. She took a big breath as she readied herself for what she wanted to say. "I know you have problems with how things are done but has it occurred to you that you might make things worse with your crusade?"

"It has," Raven said with a dour expression. "Problem is, if I do nothing then things definitely won't get better."

Briar had a conflicted look on her face as the truth of Raven's words hit her.

"I really hope that you do make things better," Brair said, "and for everyone, not just focusing on one group like the current status quo. I just hope you don't end up completely ruining everything for everyone attempting to do so."

"I hope I don't do that too," Raven said and then put her hand on Briar's arm. "It means a lot to hear you say that you understand why I'm doing what I'm doing."

"You're welcome," Brair said with a small smile. "And I'm hoping that you'll show your gratitude by keeping this all to yourself to preserve my reputation with the Royals."

"Sure," Raven said. She began walking away from Briar, in much higher spirits now that she was an amiable terms with someone she considered a friend.

...

Later that night, Darling and Rosabella were in their room getting ready for bed.

"I'm sorry about what Daring said about you," Darling said. "I know you're not taking advantage of Raven's publicity for your own purposes."

"Actually, I am," Rosabella answered. "But I fully intend to help the Rebel movement, so it's more like we're helping each other. More importantly, I know why Daring said those things about me and the others: he's afraid."

"Afraid of what?" Darling asked with a quirked eyebrow. She knew about Rosabella's aura vision thing and wasn't curious about how she knew that. What she didn't understand was what Daring could possibly be afraid of since he was from an incredibly prestigious family and had practically every girl wanting to drape themselves around his arms.

"My sight isn't that specific," Rosabella explained. "But if I had to guess, I would say that he is afraid change. You see, for people like me, Raven and to a lesser extent yourself, change means that the things we don't like about the world will get better but for people like Daring and many of the Royals, change means that the future may not be what was promised them. Entitlement issues aside, Daring is scared because he's been so focused on fulfilling his destiny that he's built his entire identity around it. If he can't fulfill his destiny, he doesn't know who he is. Of course, that's just a theory: there could be other reasons."

 _I doubt it_ , Darling thought. She knew that Rosabella was right about how invested Daring was and how he was reacting to his sense of personal identity being threatened. _If there is a way to resolve this peacefully, I have no idea what it is._

...

Meanwhile, Evan had teleported himself on to the school's roof to see the results of a device he had put there. The device had several mirrors attached that directed starlight into a small chamber that had been enchanted to accumulate cosmic energy. Evan took out a glass tube and used his magic to empty the cosmic energy from the device's chamber into the tube.

"One more night and I'll have a new Astro Switch ready," Evan said. While he definitely wished that the process could happen quicker than once roughly every five days, he was definitely happy that he could create his own Astro Switches now thanks to the information from Foundation X that he had taken. While it would take so some time, he'd eventually have a formidable strike force of zodiarts.


	7. Chapter 7

It was after classes the next day. Raven had gotten all the rebels, new recruits and her close friends, together outside the school.

"What is it, Raven?" Rosabella asked.

"I have something fairy important to share with all of you," Raven began.

"Have any of you wondered why I came back from Monster High to refuse to sign the Storybook of Legends when making a fresh start for myself would have been easier over there?"

"It's because your friends are all over here, right?" Cerise asked, worried that she wasn't going to get the answer she wanted.

"Yes and no," Raven replied as she nervously rubbed the back of her head. "When Grimm and Baba Yaga came to get me, I told him that I'd stay at Monster High unless he were to give me some concessions about following my destiny. He agreed but when we all got back here, he had Baba Yaga cast a spell on me that bars me from ever going back to Monster High and then made it clear that since I'm back here to stay that he had no intention of following through on any concessions."

There was an incredibly awkward silence over the rebels as they processed what they just heard. There were a few unpleasant conclusions to draw from what they'd just heard, the most hurtful of which being...

"You only came back because he tricked you?" Maddie asked, hurt and betrayal evident in her voice.

"Yes," Raven admitted with a dour expression. "Keep in mind that this was before Legacy Day. I didn't know most of you that well and some of you not at all. How was I supposed to know that if I stood against Headmaster Grimm, so many others would stand with me?"

"I'd stand with you no matter what," Maddie said, hurt still evident in her voice.

"You are my oldest and closest friend, Maddie," Raven continued, "and I was pretty sure that you'd get over my leaving with time due to your personal... Uniqueness."

"If you are implying that I don't process emotions normally due to my uniquely wonderlandish brain, then," Maddie began angrily then paused as she struggled to find the right words, "well, you're right but I'd still miss you fairy much."

"I know you would, but you have to understand why I considered staying there," Raven said.

"A chance to make choices for yourself," Cerise piped in. "To have a fresh start with none of the crap currently holding you back." Cerise's statement caused a series of nods and murmurs of agreement from the assembled Rebels.

"Cupid's told me a little bit of what's it like at Monster High," Lilly spoke up, "and I might consider taking my chances there. Though I really only paid attention to how she said that girl on girl relationships are more common and accepted than they are here so I should probably do more research before committing to anything."

"When did Cupid tell ya that?" Jillian asked. "She wasn't exactly forthcoming about her time at Monster High up until Toralei's surprise visit and even then, she hasn't mentioned anything about that."

"Um, you see," Lilly stammered, not sure where to take this without mentioning information someone else wanted her not to.

"I told Lilly about that," Cupid began, "during a brief period where we were together in private. I usually like guys but I'm occasionally into girls. I decided to keep to myself because I needed to make a good first impression when first coming to this world (1)."

"That makes sense," Jillian replied and everyone in attendance nodded in understanding.

 _So glad that went well_ , Cupid thought, glad to finally get all of that off her chest.

"I think we've gotten off topic," Raven said. "Back to the issue of why I came back from Monster High: do you all believe me?"

"I believe you, Raven," Rosabella spoke up, "but other people, particularly the ones who look up to headmaster Grimm, will need something more in the way of evidence."

"I am painfully aware of that," Raven said with disdain. Last night, Raven had attempted to tell Apple about being deceived into returning from Monster High while speaking in hypotheticals. Apple choose to entertain her and fall for this but also made it clear that she would need proof to believe that Headmaster Grimm had done what Raven had 'Hypothetically' accused him of. (2)

"That's the main reason I didn't tell the whole school after I was tricked: Grimm made it clear that in a situation of my word against his, his would win," Raven continued. "Without any kind of evidence, I can't prove my story which really sucks because if I could, it might bring more people to our side: any thoughts on that? While you're thinking that over, there's something else we need to talk about. You should all be aware the current situation of us standing against the status quo is most likely going to get worse before it gets better. Do any of you have back-up plans in case things get really bad: like 'we're made examples of so future generations do as their told' bad?

"I have a plan of sorts," Hunter said. He and Ashlynn had had a similar talk about the worst-case scenario of their relationship being uncovered. The plan (which Hunter didn't feel like sharing) was for Ashlynn to start working full-time at the Glass Slipper shoe store while Hunter found his own job and they both saved enough to pay his way through veterinary school and ideally find their own happily ever after.

"Judging by the hexpressions on most of you," Raven continued, "I'd say you haven't given this much thought. Before I came back from Monster High, I left my Mirrorphone over there and I can use my magic mirror to contact it and talk to the mutual friends Cupid and I have over there."

"Wait, you can make phone calls to another dimension," Poppy thought out loud. "That's amazing!"

"It's less impressive than it sounds," Raven humbly stated. "I can only keep the signal going for about five to eight minutes. And it doesn't travel far so whoever I want to call has to be near this one spot in the catacombs underneath their school where the accident that made Toralei and I switch places originally happened because that is now a soft spot between the two universes. Also, calling people is greatly complicated by how 12 noon here is 12 midnight there."

"Still beats out my service provider's non-existent coverage to other dimensions," Poppy added.

"Moving on," Raven continued. "I've talked with Headmistress Bloodgood, the woman who's in charge of Monster High, and her sympathy for our cause is so great that she's willing to offer... what was the term she used... political asylum for anyone who's interested."

"You want us," Melody began with a tone of indignation, "to leave everyone and everything we know to live as refugees in another world full of monsters."

"It's just a contingency plan," Raven explained. "In case the worst should happen."

"That IS the worst," Melody countered angrily.

"You say that now," Raven calmly shot back, "but you might be changing your tune if it looks like we're going to be on the losing end of this thing. And you don't have to go if you don't want to: it's an open offer for anyone who's interested."

"But if you can't go to Monster High," Maddie began, "what's your contingency plan?"

"Don my Nocturnal armor," Raven began, "hop on Demona, ride like the wind towards any point on the map furthest from Grimm's influence and fight my way through anyone who tries to stop me."

"That's a good plan," Cerise said. In truth, her family had a similar escape plan in case the truth about them was ever exposed.

 _Hopefully_ , she thought, _none us will have to use those kind of plans._

...

While this was going on, Blondie was by herself in the room she shared with Cupid. She had made a mirrorblog post doing what Daring had instructed: demonizing the Rebels while endorsing the Royals. Unfortunately, this had come with consequences.

The school must have had more rebel-sympathizing students than Blondie originally thought because taking such a stance had riled up almost twenty percent of the school, much greater than the dozen or so confirmed Rebels she knew of. Cerise had piped in at one point, asking any rebel or rebel-leaning students to boycott her mirrorblog for being so openly biased. Cerise had also accused Blondie of selling out to the Royals to stay on the good side of the group that had the most glamorous and prestigious students.

That last comment had stung Blondie a bit due to how close to the truth it was.

While Blondie was wallowing in despair and attempting to think of ways to improve her circumstances, there was a knock on the door.

"It's me, Blondie," Apple said from outside. "I know you're not feeling great, so I want to try to cheer you up."

"Coming," Blondie sat as she walked towards the door. She unlocked it and Apple walked inside.

"I'm so sorry to hear about the boycott against your mirrorblog," Apple began. "But I think I have something in mind to get back at those filthy Rebels."

"Filthy Rebels?" Blondie repeated aloud, confused as to why Apple would talk like that. "Yes, let's do that. But first, how did Briar react when you told her about your cousin?"

"I didn't get a chance to tell Briar yet," Apple answered.

"I imagine you didn't because I just made that thing up," Blondie explained with a scowl. "Who the hex are you really?"

"Firstly," 'Apple' said, "I apologize for the deception: I was concerned that you wouldn't invite me in otherwise. Secondly," there was a green shimmering effect around 'Apple' that dispelled the illusion around 'her' and revealed that it was actually Evan Chanter. Blondie quickly took out her Mirrorphone and typed out a brief S.O.S hext.

"With one push," Blondie stated firmly but with a hint of panic as she took several steps back, "this hext message saying how you've broken into my room gets sent to the real Apple."

"Okay," Evan agreed then had an awkward look on his face. "It just occurred to me that tricking you to invite me into your room when you're by yourself could be seen as bad and I apologize for that."

"This is serious, isn't it?" Blondie asked with eyes open in shock, surprised that a proud villain-in-training like Evan would apologize for anything.

"Fairy serious," Evan began. "I am in the brainstorming phase of a plan to punish Raven for her actions on Legacy Day and I want to know if you will help me."

"What kind of help?" Blondie asked. She wouldn't normally associate with someone like Evan but all the chaos Raven had recently caused greatly offended her OCD-like fondness for everything to be 'just right', so she was open-minded about hexpressing her disdain. There was also the matter of... "And what's in it for me?"

"I can help you get revenge on Cerise," Evan offered, "for starting that boycott against you."

"I'm not mad at Cerise," Blondie clarified. "Not fairy mad anyway. I'd much rather want revenge on Daring."

"Daring?" Evan asked in surprise. "What'd he do to you?"

"Is that important?" Blondie awkwardly countered. She was not interested in sharing her reasons with someone so incredibly untrustworthy as Evan.

"Possibly but more importantly, you have piqued my curiosity," Evan said with an evil grin as he reached into a pouch on his, pulled out a glove and put it on his right hand. "Are you going to tell me or do I have to use this to pluck the information from your brain."

"I'll tell you, just put that thing away," Blondie said with some fright. _It's not like anyone will believe him anyway_ , she mentally noted. Blondie went over how Daring confronted her and threatened her with a Royal boycott into publicly supporting the Royals.

"So the way I see it," she continued, "the boycott Cerise started against me is his fault because I was willing to report on the Rebel/Royal conflict as a neutral third party until he forced me to pick sides."

"To say nothing," Evan began, "of how giving into his demands to avoid a Royal boycott got you boycotted by the Rebels."

"Hexactly," Blondie said with an uncharacteristically angry scowl, which quickly relaxed. "I'm hoping you keep this to yourself. If word of this got out, the Rebels would still be mad at me for having sided against them but the Royals would have reason to be displeased with me because I had to be threatened into doing that."

"Sure but we have another problem," Evan replied. "Daring is on my list of possible recruits. If he joins us, can you play nice with him?"

"Yeah, but do you think Daring will want to work with you? You two are like total opposites."

"Maybe not: threatening you with a Royal boycott to do something that got you boycotted anyway seems like a me-level dick move."

"True."

"More importantly, Daring and I want to take drastic measures against Raven for our own reasons: he thinks it's the right thing to do, I think that following my destiny as a villain to punish Raven for not wanting to follow hers means I can f %k with her and at worst just get a slap on the wrist."

 _And hopefully_ , Evan thought, _a few under the table favors from Headmaster Grimm._

"So what do you say?" Evan asked. "You help me take steps against Raven and afterwards, I'll help you get whatever form of revenge you want on Daring."

"Deal," Blondie agreed as she extended her hand, the two of them shaking on their alliance.

…..

Author's notes: (1) this is gone into more detail in 'Unplanned Exchange Program.

(2) I've decided to be lazy and simply show the results of this conversation rather than detailing it. Sorry.


	8. Chapter 8

During the same time as the Rebels discussion and Blondie's recruitment into Evan's cabal, the Royal student council had another meeting. They had voted to have Duchess become their next co-president, much to her enjoyment. When the meeting had ended, Duchess had gone to see Daring.

"Hello Daring," Duchess said as she sauntered up to the prince.

"Hello Duchess," Daring said. "Congratulations on getting the presidency."

"Thank you," Duchess replied with a smile that rivaled Kitty's. "What say we go to town and grab a bite to celebrate?"

"Tonight's not a good night for me," Daring countered. "Apple and I are going out on our first date."

"That's still happening?" Duchess asked in confusion. "Apple's been deposed since you said you'd start going out with her. I'd assumed that with you being so image conscious, you'd have called it off."

"I can see why you'd think that," Daring agreed, "but Apple and I are meant to be. I want to show everyone, especially those filthy rebels, that our destinies are still going as planned despite recent roadblocks. You understand, don't you?"

"Of course," Duchess replied with the calmness of the highly-skilled liar she was. Inwardly, she was crushed to hear Daring's rejection: especially so soon after she'd been rejected by someone else.

She turned away from Daring and walked away before her face betrayed how she really felt. She took out her Mirrorphone and sent a hext message to someone asking for an in-person meeting. The recipient hexted back that they were available and could be at a certain spot in the woods by the school in ten minutes.  
...

Later, Duchess had met up with Hopper at the spot they mentioned earlier and began venting about how bad she felt getting rejected by Daring. Most people would find this an immensely weird sight but Hopper and Duchess had become somewhat friends after an incident about two weeks ago with each other after they simultaneously failed to win over Justine Dancer (1).

"And to make things worse," Duchess continued with a downtrodden tone, "this happened so soon after I got rejected by Justine. Why does this keep happening to me?"

 _I can think of a few reasons_ , Hopper thought to himself. While he was tempted to go into detail about how the repeated rejections might have something to do with her frequent bitchiness, he decided not to because he didn't want to squander the good will that had developed between them following their bonding moment from getting rejected by Justine. Also, there was how staying on Duchess's good side kept him from being subjected to her previously mentioned bitchiness. He went up to Duchess and hugged her.

"I know it sucks," he began as Duchess returned the hug, "that Justine couldn't return your feelings and that Daring started being committed to Apple at the same time going out with you could have been convient for him, but things can be not all bad if you focus on what's going right."

"Does it ever get easier?" Duchess asked, referring to getting rejected.

"Yeah, but not as much as you'd hope," Hopper answered.

"Thanks for coming here, Hopper," Duchess said as they separated from their hug. "And I apologize for this in advance but just to be clear, if you tell anyone about all this stuff I opened up to you about or even that we're kind of friends now, you will find out just how much of a bitch I can be when I'm pissed off. Though I really hope it doesn't come to that."

"That's fair," Hopper replied, knowing that Duchess probably had some trust issues and wanted to make it clear that he'd regret making her regret lowering her guard.

"Thank you for your understanding," Duchess began and got a little choked up, "of... So many things."

It was times like this that Hopper got fairy confused when it came to this state of semi-friendship with Duchess. On one hand, he knew that Duchess appreciated having him as a shoulder to cry on but on the other hand, he also knew that Duchess would never be grateful enough to ever want to associate with him in public. He wasn't even sure why he'd keep being there to emotionally support Duchess when appeasing her into not making fun of him wasn't that great of a reason. Hopper put these thoughts aside.

"If you feel really bad," Hopper began, "and want to be with someone for the sake of being with someone, I know Lilly is always looking for someone who's compatible with her."

"I'm not into girls anymore," Duchess said matter-of-factly. "I think that thing with Justine was a phase and getting rejected by her so brutally knocked me out of it."

"That's unfortunate," Hopper said. "I was hoping we could talk about which girls we think are hot."

"You're better off doing that with Lilly," Duchess replied dryly.  
...

After dinner that day, Raven went to headmaster Grimm's office, having made an appointment earlier to discuss ending the Rebel/Royal conflict. She was let inside and found the Headmaster at his desk.

"Hello Ms. Queen," Grimm said with a welcoming grin. "I see you've come here to concede defeat."

"Not hexactly," Raven said. "I'm not happy that the immediate results of not pledging my destiny seem to have done more harm than good. I'm willing to go through with poising Apple like everyone wants on the condition that after doing so, I be allowed to follow whatever path in life I choose. And unlike when you offered me concessions about following my destiny if I willingly came back from Monster High, you're going to keep your end of the deal this time."

"Absolutely not," Grimm replied darkly. "There is no way I will agree to any conditions you make. You are going to poison Apple and then go to jail because that is what is supposed to happen. You have no plan aside from obstinance and eventually you and your followers will start running out of that. When that happens, your movement will fall apart and we can all get back to everyone doing what they're supposed to."

"You mean what you tell them," Raven shot back.

"Hexactly," Grimm said with a smile, the implications Raven were trying to make flying over him.

"Well I tried," Raven said in defeat. "It's probably just as well: you probably wouldn't uphold your end of any agreement, like last time."

"And why should I?" Grimm asked mockingly. "I have all the power and you have nothing except your obstinance and the loyalty of a few short-sighted peers."

A dark aura surrounded Raven, indicating that her magic was powering up. A burst of her uncontrolled magic hit Grimm and gave him the body of a chicken once more.

"Bawk. Not again," Grimm said in dismay.

"I'd say I'm sorry but I'm really not," Raven said condescendingly as she literally looked down on him then turned to leave the room. "It will wear off in a few hours like last time. Hopefully."

Grimm wasn't too worried about his current predicament. He took Raven's outburst as a sign that despite her best efforts, she was more evil than she thought.

 _Maybe this will keep up_ , Grimm thought as he went to his Mirrorphone and began pecking on it with his nose, attempting to call Baba Yaga so she'd undo this curse.

Once Raven was away from Grimm's office, she took out her Mirrorphone and held it up to her ear.

"Did you get all that?" Raven asked.

"Every word," Rosabella answered. Raven had her phone on during the conversation with Grimm and had Rosabella record them.

"But Grimm never really admitted to reneging on what he offered to get me back from Monster High."

"Not in the hexact words, but not disputing your accusation and claiming that following through on his promises is beneath him should have the same effect as a confession. So when do you want to put this on the Mirrornet?"

"Let's save it for tomorrow morning."  
...

Some time later, Raven was in her room with Apple.

"There's something I need to share with you," Raven said to Apple as she took out her phone and played the recording from earlier, having decided to share this with Apple before doing so with the rest of the school. The recording finished playing and Apple looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"Oh Raven," Apple said as she quickly hugged her roommate. "I'm so sorry that I didn't believe you earlier."

"Don't worry about it Apple," Raven said comfortingly as she returned the hug while sporting a mischievous grin that would have done Kitty proud, thinking of how Grimm undermining his own credibility might greatly help her. "Everything's going to be all right."

(1) This happened in a one-shot I did called 'Dancing Complications'.


	9. Chapter 9

That morning, Rosabella put Raven's recording all over the Mirrornet. It had caused quite an uproar to learn that Raven only returned from Monster High because she'd been coerced by Headmaster Grimm into doing so.

By the time Raven had entered the Castleteria, she had a small crowd of Royals gazing at her with expressions that were cross between anger and the desire for answers. Blondie, Daring and Dexter came over to her with Dexter trailing behind and holding Blondie's Mirrorpad as a camera.

Daring had talked the other Royals there into staying back and letting him and Blondie do the talking.

"Hello Raven," Daring said with a scowl.

"I'm guessing you have some questions for me," Raven replied.

"You got that right," Daring answered with a bit of anger. "First question: do you deny that you only refused to sign on Legacy Day to get back at the Headmaster for tricking you into coming back from Monster High?"

"If that were true," Raven began, going with a line she'd prepared in a practice interview with Rosabella earlier, "it would mean that the Headmaster's attempt to deceive and strong-arm me into signing backfired on him and the whole school: what does that say about his problem solving skills?"

 _That they leave much to be desired_ , Daring and many of the people watching this impromptu interview thought.

"So you admit," Daring continued, "that you only choose to not sign to get back at him."

"I admit," Raven began with great confidence, "that his attempts to force me into signing fanned the flames of my defiance. Also, how do you think Legacy Day would have gone down if I'd been allowed to stay at Monster High?"

"It have gone off without a hitch because you wouldn't have been anywhere near it," Blondie answered absent mindedly.

"Hexactly," Raven said.

"But you still thought," Daring interjected, "that his lying to you was reason enough to risk non-existence by not signing?"

"Considering," Raven began, "that by lying to me about the offer of concessions to force me into signing, he gave me reason to think that he was lying about the non-existence thing then yes, I felt that it was a risk worth taking."

 _Crap_ , Daring thought to himself. He had planned this interview to make Raven look like a short-sighted brat who almost erased herself out of existence by stubbornly refusing to sign but even though he hated Raven's guts, he had to admit that she'd hexplained herself in such a way that proved there was more to it than that.

"Turn it off," Daring told his brother who turned off Blondie's Mirrorpad, which had been broadcasting the interview as it happened (which Daring wished he had decided against earlier). "This isn't over, Raven," he glowered at her.

...

Hours later, classes had ended for the day. Duchess went to her locker to drop off books and grab a few things. She closed the door, then turned and noticed the Raven was suddenly standing next to her.

"Hello Duchess," Raven greeted with false politeness.

"Raven," Duchess returned, concealing how taken by surprise she was by Raven's sudden appearance. "To what do I owe the displeasure of your company?"

"Your recent ascension to Royal student body co-president," Raven answered. "If you're thinking of pushing Maddie out of the picture so you can get more power for yourself, I would strongly advise against it."

"Oh, I'm so scared," Duchess sarcastically mocked.

"You should be," Raven sternly replied. "Many people would love to see evidence that despite my actions on Legacy Day, I am starting to embrace evil. Maybe I could give them what I want by doing evil unto you."  
Raven accentuated her point by grabbing Duchess's forearm and surrounding her hand in a magical purple aura that was uncomfortably warm to Duchess then releasing her after about three seconds.

"Of course," Raven continued, "that doesn't need to happen if you don't try to piss me off. I know you don't have a lot of hexperience with that but I feel it would be in your best interest to learn quickly. On an unrelated note, have I ever told you about the time I accidentally broke a guy's kneecaps?" (1)

"You have not," Duchess said worriedly then looked to past Raven as though something caught her interest. "I have never been so happy to see you, Briar."

Raven was caught off-guard by this and broke eye contact with Duchess to look behind her and notice that Briar was standing there. With Raven's back turned to her, Duchess spun around and began to put distance between her and Raven.

"This is awkward," Raven said as she looked at Briar and rubbed her left arm with her right hand. "How much of that did you hear?"

"Most of it," Briar answered then took a deep breath as she thought about what she'd say. "I know you have a lot to deal with right now but how bout we both go into town and have a little chat over lattes? Probably should make yours a decaf though: you seem plenty tense as it is."

"That sounds good," Raven answered.

"Are you talking about the chat or the decaf thing?"

"Both."

Raven and Briar left the school and went to the coffee shop. They got lattes and sat down.

"Aren't you worried about being seen in public with me?" Raven said as she took a sip.

"Don't worry about it," Briar said. "Despite some of the stuff you've done, you're not as universally hated as you think you are," Briar glared a bit as she took a sip. "You were really planning to stay at Monster High and not see anyone from here ever again?"

"Yes," Raven answered. "Monster High is a very different place from here and not just because of the monsters. Due to the school's philosophy of embracing personal uniquity and not being defined by stuff that's outside your control, nobody cared about my mom or what she'd done. I could've gotten the fresh start that I'll never get here."

"I actually have the opposite problem," Briar said. "I'm dreading the fresh start that I'm going to get when I wake up from a hundred year snooze because of all the people I'll miss. Is there no one here that you would have missed?"

"A few people," Raven replied. "But I mostly thought about staying because I didn't think many people would miss me. It looks like I was wrong about that."

The two of them sat in silence for a while, enjoying their coffee and each other's company.

"About what happened with Duchess earlier," Briar began, "that wasn't like you."

"I know," Raven answered shamefully. "But I'm worried that she'll try to get rid of Maddie and wanted to scare her away from that. In my defense, with things so tense lately my ability to tolerate her crap is strained without her even doing anything. Also, there's a good chance that whatever I might do to her, she's had coming for years."

"As incredibly true as that is," Briar answered playfully, "you should really avoid intimidating people into doing what you want."

"You're right," Raven said. "I should go apologize to Duchess."

"Well let's not do anything ridiculous now," Briar said with a small laugh.

The two of them made small talk for a while, both of them feeling much better.

Once again, Raven had gone to Meiling's dojo to hone her fighting skills. In addition to Raven and Meiling, two others from their semi-close knit group of friends were also there: Cerise and Romana.

After the battle with Foundation X, Cerise had told her sister about all the people she had let in on her secret. Afterwords, Romana had been told about who Meiling really was and was allowed to come to the dojo to use Meiling's workout equipment. While Romana and Raven were not particularly close with each other, she still considered Ramona part of her 'inner circle': those who knew who the truth about both Cerise and Meiling.

After some time with each girl doing their workout of choice (Raven sparred with her magical duplicate, Meiling lifted weights while the wolf sisters ran on treadmills that were on the highest setting), they all sat down on the floor.

"I have something important to discuss with all of you," Raven said. "I think I might have a way to bring Apple over to our side."

"That's great," Cerise said. "What is it? And why are you only telling us?" Cerise's eyes widened when the answer occurred to her. "You want to tell her about me and Meiling, don't you?"

"Yes," Raven admitted calmly.

"I know you wouldn't think about this without good reason," Meiling said, "so let's hear her out first."

"Thank you," Raven said. "After I tricked Grimm into admitting that he lied to get me to come back from Monster High, Apple was pretty upset and displeased with herself for originally taking his word over mine," she explained with a slight grin.

"And this is good?" Meiling asked, slightly unnerved by Raven's joy with this matter.

"It can be good," Raven continued. "Apple's faith in Grimm has been cracked. With a little push, such as informing her about how knowing the truth about Cerise and Meiling contributed to my refusing to sign on Legacy Day, I think I can shatter it and bring her over to our side."

"That would be fantastic for us," Cerise said gleefully. "Despite losing her position on the Royal Student Council, Apple is still widely beloved by the school. If she switched sides, others might come with her."

"Hexactly," Raven said with a smile. "And it gets even better: I talked with Ashlynn Ella and she definitely wants to join the Rebels after she has a few days to gather her courage and have some good times with her Royal friends before it's time to burn bridges with them."

"Why does she wish to defect?" Meiling asked.

"That is personal," Raven said then had a look on her face that signified she was thinking some things over. "Oh what the hex: this group is good at keeping secrets and Ashlynn is going to tell everyone when she switches sides. Ashlynn has been in a secret relationship with Hunter Huntsman for quite some time. They've kept it to themselves because she's afraid of the consequences but has decided that she has so much in common with the Rebels with wanting to choose her own path that she wants to formally join us."

"That's good for you," Ramona said, "but how is that relevant to the Apple thing?"

"We would gain more recruits and sympathizers," Cerise began, "if we have both of them on our side."

"Plus," Raven spoke up with eyes wide in excitement, "if we get the two of them, that might be enough to get Briar to join us as well."

"What?" Cerise asked in confusion, not following Raven.

"I had a personal conversation with Briar earlier," Raven began to hexplain. "She understands why I'm doing what I'm doing so I think she's on the fence about this Rebel/Royal thing more than she wants people to know. If Apple and Ashlynn join us, then the people Briar knows who are Rebels or Rebel sympathizers will include her best friend, her roommate, her cousin and her favorite DJ. After that, Briar might be more likely to show the world who she really is if she has the support of those close to her."

"Heh heh," Ramona snickered. "It sounded like you were talking about something else for a second there."

"So it did," Raven awkwardly admitted, not realizing that her choice of words sounded like she was hoping Briar would come out of the closet. "Poor phrasing aside, if Briar joined us it would mean that we would have the three most beloved princesses in the school on our side."

"That would be nothing short of miraculous for us," Cerise said. "But it does seem to hinge on winning over Apple."

"It does," Raven admitted. "That's why I need to tell her about you and Meiling. If Apple knows about what I learned from you, or rather your parents, that it is possible for someone to defy their destiny but not cease to exist and how I learned from Meiling that Grimm has no problem with distorting information to the school if it furthers his political agenda then Apple might come over to the Rebel side and start the chain of events I previously mentioned. So please: let me tell her about the two of you."

"I see no problem with this," Meiling said. "I only ask that you let me be the one to tell her."

"That's fairest," Raven admitted then looked at the wolf sisters. "And you two?"

"I'm not personally invested in the Rebel/Royal conflict," Romana began. "But from what I've heard, being a thorn in Grimm's ass sounds like it'll be it's own reward. More importantly, if more people start challenging the way of things then it might one day be safe for us to come forward about the family secret," Romana finished by removing Cerise's hood, displaying her wolf ears to show what she was talking about which earned a look of annoyance from her sister. "You can tell Apple if you want but if it this blows up in our faces, as far as mom and dad know, I had nothing to do with it."

"I don't need your permission," Cerise said with a stern expression, which then softened. "But it is nice to have your approval."

"Hexcellent," Raven with a wide smile, looking forward for what was coming.

…

Author's notes: (1) this happened in Kamen Rider Nocturnal: Battle of Ever After.


	10. Chapter 10

When classes ended, Evan sent a hext message to Lizzie saying that he wanted to have a discreet meeting with her about the future of Wonderland. Lizzie replied that she'd meet him in an empty classroom. Several minutes later, Evan arrived there.

"Hello Evan," Lizzie greeted with almost tangible scorn. "I'm familiar with your type: you're going to try to offer me something I want in exchange for helping you with something. Well forget it: you can't tempt me," Lizzie finished by crossing her arms defiantly and turning her head away from Evan.

"I want to punish Raven for her actions on Legacy Day," Evan began, "in order to disband her rebellion and get everyone on the track to following their destinies, which includes you becoming queen of a restored Wonderland.

"Oh that's right," Lizzie said as she uncrossed her arms and slumped her head in defeat. "You can tempt me with things I want. What do you want me to do?"

"Short-term," Evan continued, "I just need you and Blondie to ask Daring to join us. Leave me name of it for right now though."

"All right," Lizzie agreed.

….

While this was going on, Daring and Coach Arthur had gone into headmaster Grimm's office, having scheduled an appointment earlier.

"What is this about Arthur?" Grimm asked.

"Daring presented an idea to me earlier," Arthur began, "and I think you should hear him out."

"Like many things these days, it's about Raven," Daring said with a look of determination. "I propose that you offer her the chance to stay at Monster High, like she originally wanted, in exchange for never coming back to this world. We give her a portal to go through and have Baba Yaga reverse the spell placed on her so that she's barred from coming back here. By accepting this offer, Raven will prove that all her talk of fairness and choice is just camouflage for her own selfishness. Between that and abandoning all the followers she's made once she's gotten what she wants, I doubt those followers will be interested in continuing to be Rebels and everything can go back to normal."

There was silence for about five seconds as Grimm thought this over.

"That's an interesting idea, Daring," Grimm said. "I hexspecially like the part where I give Raven the means to discredit herself as a benevolent revolutionary, but I won't be going with it. By giving Raven what she wants, it might show all the rebels that by throwing a long enough tantrum, they'll get their way which might actually encourage further rebellion. Also, Raven might not be interested in accepting any deal I offer her on general principle."

 _Because she doesn't trust you_ , Daring and Coach Arthur thought to themselves.

"Plan B then," Daring began. "We don't leave the choice up to Raven: we subdue her, throw her through a portal, have Baba Yaga do the spell reversal thing and if anyone asks we just say she took our deal."

"What?" Arthur exclaimed in shock. "You never went over that with me."

"I like that plan even less," Grimm said sternly. "If Raven were to suddenly disappear around the same time she's becoming a growing inconvenience for me to run this school and I claim to be the last person who saw her, do you know what that will look like?"

"Oh," Daring said, realizing that it might look like he had Raven killed and thrown in a ditch somewhere but not wanting to say that out loud.

"I appreciate your concern," Grimm began, "but I will handle this."

"Have you seen this yet?" Daring took out his mirrorphone and showed Grimm a chart that showed the results of a survey Blondie recently took, asking the students of the school where they stood in the Rebel/Royal conflict in light of Raven sharing the conversation she'd recorded. "21% of the students are confident with admitting to being Rebels. Combine that with 38% who are undecided because your and Raven's actions have made it hard to side with either of you, that means less than half the school is interested in following their destinies because it's the right thing. Something drastic needs to be done and soon."

"Let's not confuse drastic with regrettable," Arthur said (not liking the current tone of the conversation) while Grimm's eyes were wide at having looked at the chart for the first time and being disturbed at this new information.

"While this is indeed troubling," Grimm said with renewed composure, "The situation is more in hand than it appears. The momentum the Rebels have gained so far will not last. I can outlast them and when that happens, they will scatter and return to following their destinies."

"Do you have a plan B in mind?" Daring asked.

"I won't need one," Grimm answered.

"Like you didn't need to come up with one," Daring started, "after bringing Raven back to this school in case she refused to sign the Storybook of Legends?"

"We're done talking now," Grimm replied sternly with almost tangible scorn. Arthur and Daring decided that since Grimm was in no mood to talk, it was best to leave. Once outside his office, Arthur tapped Daring's shoulder to get his attention.

"Now Daring," he began, "I know that things are fairy tense right now but you need to careful with what do with your anger towards Raven. Many students listen to you and if you say or do the wrong thing then the current tension could go from mean stares and heated debates to a school-wide riot. And if you're thinking how that would be a great opportunity to solve this situation by beating the Rebels into submission, you should know that if Raven's physical abilities are consistent with those of the Kamen Riders I'm familiar with then she's heavily resistant to bodily harm and is strong enough to break limbs with minimal effort."

"Oooookay," Daring said awkwardly. He actually had been thinking about possibly beating the Rebels into submission but with Arthur's description of what Raven could do, he was having second thoughts. "I'm curious: I know those guys with the bug-eyed helmets are heroes from other worlds. How do you feel about Raven ripping them off like that?"

"Raven making herself a Kamen Rider is more appropriate than you might think," Arthur began. "Quite a few Riders got their powers from being kidnapped by evil organizations and getting experimented on. Afterwards, they broke free and started fighting those same organizations. That's vaguely similar to how Raven wants to defy what Grimm and the people above him have in store for her. Plus, nearly all riders get their powers from a source that is also used for evil which is kind of like how even though Raven's magic is evil, she doesn't want to be."

"Whose side are you on?" Daring asked with a quirked eyebrow, confused as to why his heroics coach and a member of the school's faculty was displaying sympathies for Raven.

"I'm on the side that wants to prevent anything like that riot I mentioned earlier from happening," Arthur hexplained. Daring then had a conflicted look on his face as he thought something over.

"Can we go somewhere more private?" Daring asked. "I want to share something private with you."

"Of course," Arthur said as he took them to his office. A short walk later, they had the privacy Daring requested. Daring took a deep breath as he prepared himself for what he wanted to say.

"Apple and I had our first date last night," Daring began. "It did not go well and I have no idea why. I was my usual Charming self," he said with his signature smile (fortunately there wasn't enough light in the office to cause a blinding glare), "which makes girls melt in my hand but for some reason, Apple and I weren't clicking like I thought we would once we started on the road to us being together for ever after. Fortunately for me, Raven leaking that conversation she had with Headmaster Grimm and attempting to convince everyone that his attempts at trying to force her to sign made her more determined to resist him took the public eye off me. I have never been so glad to have people not want to pay attention to me. Anyway, what if Raven not pledging her destiny has already prevented us from following ours?"

There was silence between them as Arthur thought over what we would say.

"I'm glad you told me that Daring," Arthur began. "I'm going to share something private with you as well. About half of the fairytale couples have to put some degree of work into the relationships happening and/or being maintained. In those cases, the couples don't click and then stay clicked forever with no effort on their part like what you were hoping would happen with you and Apple."

"What?" Daring said in confusion. This contradicted everything he'd been told about what happened when a fairytale couple got together.

"It's kept secret due to convenience," Arthur hexplained. "You'd get in a lot of trouble for knowing this and I'd get in more trouble for having told you so let's keep this between us, okay."

"Sure sure," Daring replied. "But why tell me at all?"

"Because I was worried," Arthur began sternly, "that you'd pin your first date with Apple going poorly on Raven and use that to justify trying to smite her."

"Ah, that's fair," Daring replied.

"Which brings me to my next point," Arthur continued. "Don't try to take matters with Raven into your own hands. I know that the Headmaster hasn't had any immediate success yet with the Rebels and his lack of a contingency plan in case things don't go the way he's hoping is less than encouraging but he still has the necessary hexperience to see this through to a favorable conclusion."

"Are you trying to convince me or you?" Daring asked.

"I don't really know," Arthur said awkwardly. "But my point is this: please keep in mind that the ends don't justify the means and leave this to Headmaster Grimm. He will either make this better or make it clear that he can't: either way, it's out of your hands. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Daring said and then left Arthur's office. He checked his Mirrorphone and saw a hext message from Blondie saying that she wanted to see him soon to talk about how to make up for the recent PR disaster the Royal side just faced. He sent a reply saying that he would meet up with Blondie at a spot outside the school in 20 minutes.  
...

Roughly 20 minutes later, Daring was at the spot he mentioned and saw Blondie approach him. Strangely, she was accompanied by Lizzie Hearts.

"Hello Daring," Blondie began. "I'll cut to the chase. Things have gone fairy badly for us since Raven leaked that conversation. We need to get control of the situation by taking more drastic measures against Raven personally."

 _This seems familiar_ , Daring thought. He considered that there was no harm in hearing out Blondie and Lizzie: hexpecially if they were planning something that Coach Arthur would consider too far and Daring could make sure it never got off the ground.

"Drastic like what?" Daring asked.

"We really don't know yet." Lizzie answered. "We're still at the brainstorming phase."

"Who's we?"

"Us and a few other concerned Royals who have a lot to lose if our destinies don't go according to plan. Will you join us?"

"Sure," Daring answered.

"Hexcellent," Blondie said in jubilation. "I'll hext you more information later." The three of them then went their separate ways.

 _I don't like this as much as I should_ , Daring thought. _If they're not planning anything wrong then what's with all the sneakery? Come to think of it, 'taking drastic measures against Raven personally' could cover everything from putting her hand in a glass of cold water while she's asleep so she pisses herself to an assassination attempt. I might have to do the noble thing here and actually help Raven._

Daring briefly felt the sensation of wanting to vomit as that last thought occurred to him and really hoped it wouldn't come to that.


	11. Chapter 11

It was Friday afternoon and Raven had told Apple that she had something important to share.

"And set quite a bit of time aside," Raven continued. "Fully hexplaining everything will take a while."

"You've been keeping that much from me?" Apple asked.

"I've been keeping a few secrets for some friends," Raven began then leaned in to whisper in Apple's ear, "kind of like how I've been keeping knowledge of your belly-button ring to myself."

Apple's eyes widened in shock as Raven leaned away and she put her hand around the piercing she thought only she knew about. Apple was a little worried about how people knowing about that piercing would contrast with the princessly image she worked so hard to maintain and once the shock wore off, she was fairy grateful that Raven had kept that to herself and understood how Raven being selective about what she shared with the world at large could definitely be a good thing.

"Point taken," Apple conceded. "But it's going to have to wait until later today: after school I'm going on nature hike-slash-zip line tour of the enchanted forest with Briar and Ashlynn."

 _Is she going to tell them?_ Raven thought, wondering if Ashlynn was going to break the news of her defection to her friends before publicly switching sides. She hadn't talked to the future Cinderella about the timetable for her defection but she had said she'd do it in a few days a few days ago.

"Okay," Raven agreed. "Call me when you're done with that and I'll come pick you up on Demona."

….

It was sunset near the outskirts of the enchanted forest. Ashlynn, Briar and Apple had had their nature hike-slash-zip line tour and were making their way back in to town.

"I had a great time today," Ashlynn said to her friends. "I'm fairy glad I got you two to do this before I tell you some important news."

"What news?" Briar asked.

"I'm about to join the Rebels," Ashlynn said as she braced herself for their outrage.

"Why do you want to do that?" Briar asked, Apple having an expression that showed similar curiosity.

"It's a bit of a long story," Ashlynn answered, pleasantly surprised with how well this was going. "Let's just say that I have issues with how things are done and feel that this means I have more in common with the Rebels so I'm formally joining them."

"I'm not willing to take things that far," Briar began, "but I do understand where you're coming from."

"Yeah, the situation is more complicated than I thought it would be," Apple chimed in.

"Thank you so much for understanding," Ashlynn said as she did her best to hug both her friends at the same time. "Still friends?"

"Always," Apple said as she returned Ashlynn's embrace.

Apple separated from her friends and hexted a location for Raven to pick her up. Several minutes later, Raven arrived a top her monstrous black horse, Demona, and with Apple on board headed to the district of shops and businesses owned by Bookend's relatively small Asian community.

Raven rode them both to Woo's butcher shop, hopped off and went inside. Mr. Woo gave a nod to acknowledge their presence and let them walk into the dojo behind the storefront.

Apple was surprised to a room full of weapons and excersise equipment within a butcher shop but was more surprised to three people she knew waiting for them: Cerise Hood, Michigo and...

"Finelope," Raven said out loud when she noticed the overweight mermaid sitting in the dojo on her wheelchair. "I wasn't expecting you here."

"That is my fault," Michigo said. "I told her about what was going to happen tonight and she insisted that she be here to see it unfold."

"You want to try to get rid of me?" Finelope challenged with an eager grin followed by cracking her knuckles.

"Not particularly," Raven conceded then turned to Apple. "Fully hexplaining everything will take some time so we'll order some pizzas for later."

"I'm all over that," Finelope said as she took out her mirrorphone and made a call. "Hi. I'd like two large pizzas with pepperoni, sausage and mushrooms. What do the rest of you want?" Finelope asked the other girls, who quickly came to an agreement over what they wanted. Finelope finished making the order and waited for the show to begin.

"So who wants to go first?" Raven asked.

"I will," Michigo said. "It is time for us to be properly introduced, Apple. Michigo is not my real name: it is an alias that I have been using to attend Ever After High."

"Then who are you really?" Apple asked. Michigo responded by taking out a washcloth and wiping away her makeup then untied her kimono and threw it to Finelope. The kimono's absence revealed that she was wearing shorts and a tank top that showed off her well-toned physique.

"My name is Fa Meiling," she proudly stated. "Daughter of Fa Mulan, China's first and greatest female warrior."

Apple stood there with her mouth agape, completely gobsmacked by Meiling's confession.

 _I'm so glad I came for this_ , Finelope thought with a wide grin.

Meiling then began explaining the story behind the unusual circumstances of her attending Ever After High.

"How long have you known about this?" Apple asked Raven.

"About a month," Raven said. "But Meiling's secret isn't the only I want you to know about," she finished by looking at Cerise. Apple looked at her as well. Cerise removed her hood and displayed her wolf ears.

Apple's eyes widened when she saw this. Her mind started taking into account how this factored into what she knew about Cerise: how she acted like she had something to hide, her highly carnivorous diet, how she occasionally growled at people.

"A lot of stuff about you just started making sense," Apple said.

 _Crap_ , Finelope thought, disappointed that Apple hadn't had another freak out.

"I would still like a full hexplanation though," Apple said.

"My father is the Big Bad Wolf," Cerise began. "He and my mother went off-script and fell in love with each other, eventually resulting in my birth."

"And you have to keep all of that a secret," Apple continued for her, "because the outrage of them successfully defying their story would be swift and hextreme: hexspecially against you for being the embodiment of such defiance." Cerise nodded in agreement with Apple's assessment, surprised that she'd figured it out so quickly. "How does Ramona fit into this?"

"She's my half-sister," Cerise answered. "My dad fathered her with a wolf woman because he's not supposed to be with Red Riding Hood. Since she's going to be the next Big Bad Wolf, she doesn't have to hide her animal traits."

"Wait, you and Ramona are only half-sisters," Raven said with a hint of surprise. "You look more similar then that. Then again, I shouldn't really be surprised considering Briar and Rosabella are only cousins but look like they could almost be twins."

"That might be because their mothers ARE twins," Apple hexplained. "Why have you shared this with me, Raven?"

"I want you to know," Raven began, "about all the factors that led to me not wanting to sign on Legacy Day."

"Such as learning from her," Apple said as she looked at Cerise, "that it's possible to for people to go off-script and continue to exist and how you learned from her," she looked at Meiling, "that Headmaster Grimm apparently has no problem with distoring information to the whole school if it's politically convient for him."

"Hexactly," Raven said, joyous that she had gotten Apple to reach that conclusion.

"Why do you want me to know all this?" Apple asked.

"Because you are my friend," Raven said with a hint of nervousness, "and also I trust you not to share Cerise and Meiling's secrets with the whole school because that would go really bad for them."

"Mobs would come for my parents for not conforming," Cerise spoke up, "and the powers that be would probably make hexamples out of us."

"I would merely be hexpelled," Meiling added. "Not nearly as bad but I wouldn't like it either."

"I understand that," Apple agreed. "But you've told me all this because you want me to join the Rebels, don't you?"

"The important thing to keep in mind," Raven said somewhat awkwardly, "is that you don't have to join if you don't want to."

"But that is what you would like, isn't it?" Apple asked accusingly.

"Yes," Raven admitted with some reluctance. Apple then had a very conflicted look on her face as she thought about her response.

"You don't know what you're asking for, Raven," Apple sad pleadingly. "If I publicly defected like you want, my mother would more than likely disown me and I would have nothing. I sympathize with your cause and would love to help but you're asking for to much."

"I see that," Raven said as she tilted her head downward in shame, not proud of herself for failing to consider what the consequences of defecting that Apple would have to deal with.

"I need some air," Apple said as she went over to a door that lead outside the butcher shop and could only be opened from inside.

"But there's air in here," Finelope said in confusion, not understanding that Apple's words were a euphemism due to her being from an underwater society.

"It's an hexpression," Raven said with contained irritation. "She wants to be alone for a while."

About ten minutes later, Apple was still 'getting some air' when Finelope came outside as well.

"Hi," the overweight mermaid said. "I know you want to be alone but I told the pizza guy to meet me here and he should be here any minute now."

"That's fine," Apple replied. Seeing Finelope made her think of something she'd been wanting to say to her for a while. "You and I are fairy different, Finelope, and not just because of the mermaid thing. You're comfortable with who you are, aren't you?"

"Of course I am: I'm awesome," Finelope answered with a grin. "Are you comfortable with who you are?"

"Yes and no," Apple said. "The only real issue I have with myself is how I have a lot riding on people's fairy high opinion of me and that if I don't live up to those hexpectations, it could go fairy bad for me. Compare that to how you haven't let all the people telling you that you need to lose weight to achieve a more princessly image get to you."

"The way I see it," Finelope began, "why I should have to lose weight when it's everyone else who's uncomfortable with my body." An alarm set on her Mirrorphone just went off. "Heh heh, pizza guy missed his deadline."

Apple giggled a bit at this, feeling a little better about everything in front of her. She went back inside the dojo.

A few minutes later, Finelope saw the pizza guy ride up on a bicycle with pizzas strapped to a small rack on the back. The guy was in his early twenties, auburn hair and was wearing a mostly white uniform. He came up to Finelope with the pizzas she had ordered and exchanged them for payment.

"This isn't the full amount," pizza guy said.

"Cause you're three minutes late," Finelope replied.

"Come on," pizza guy pleaded. "I've never delivered to this part of town before. I tried to ask for directions but most of the people I came across don't speak English very well."

"Nice try," Finelope said, unfazed. "I've only known what pizza is for about three months and even I know better than to pay full-price when it's late." Finelope went back into the dojo and closed the door behind the disappointed pizza guy.

"I need to go back to school," he said to himself as he got back on his bicycle.


	12. Chapter 12

While they had this conversation, Evan and Faebelle had gone to Headmaster Grimm's office to talk about, as Evan had said when he asked for the appointment, saving the school from the forces of chaos and disorder. The two were let in and stood across from Grimm.

"Hello," Evan greeted.

"Let me guess," Grimm started, "you have your own idea about to deal with Raven and want to run it by me."

"Yes," Evan admitted, "but all I really need from you is assurances that if caught, any punishment I receive will be hextremely minor since I'm following my destiny as a villain to punish Raven for refusing to follow hers."

"Tell me what you have in mind and then I'll tell you if I'm okay with it," Grimm said. He knew Evan was going to bring up some twisted ideas but thought that letting Evan know he was on to him might dissuade him from going too far. _Plus there's the off-chance he'll offer a non-psychotic idea,_ Grimm thought.

"I can get Raven to agree to pledge her destiny," Evan began. "I just need about a whole day alone with her and the persuasion kit." Evan used his magic to materialize a case into his hand before putting the case on Grimm's desk and opened it. The case contained various small blades, a hammer, a few pairs of plyers and two cartons of salt, most likely to be used to rub into wounds caused by the other implements.

 _So much for that idea_ , Grimm thought.

"You can't go through that," Grimm said with dismay. "The morality of torturing Raven aside, you won't think that people will find it strange that Raven disappeared for a day and when she turns up she has many cuts and bruises, her finger nails looked like they've been ripped off and she's done a sudden 180 about pledging her destiny."

"Riiiiight," Evan said awkwardly as he planned his next words. "We can plan ahead to work around that. I've been waiting for a chance to use this thing since I got it as a birthday present two years ago: who knows how long it'll be before I get another chance."

"Can I make a suggestion that doesn't involve torture for its own sake?" Faebelle asked snarkily with her hands on her hips. "Or is this the wrong crowd?"

"Please go ahead, Ms. Thorn," Grimm said, eager to change the subject.

"Forget about Raven following her destiny," Faebelle continued. "Appoint me in charge of taking her role in the Snow White story and I'll pull double duty with that and my own destiny. Think of it as reparations for how her mother took my mother's role in the Sleeping Beauty story from her."

"I can't agree to that," Grimm said. "It was a fairy bad thing that Raven's mother prevented your mother from following her destiny. Flipping things so that you take Raven's destiny would be an imperfect measure. More importantly, with all the inconveniences Raven's caused me lately I need to make her follow her destiny as a show of strength."

"About that," Evan spoke up. "Raven's determination to defy you might be greater than you think."

"What do you mean?" Grimm asked.

"It's a bit of a long story," Evan said. "And I need you to promise that you won't be mad at me for anything I'm about to tell you."

"I promise," Grimm agreed, curious where this would go and also feeling that no matter what Evan admitted, he'd still be more angry at Raven. Evan took a deep breath before speaking.

"About a month ago," he began, "I pissed of some dangerous people from out of town."

 _What a surprise_ , Grimm sarcastically thought.

"I asked Raven for help," Evan continued, "planning to siphon her reserves of magical energy into myself so I could make better use of it than her. She then showed me that how she'd given herself Rider abilities and insisted that if she helped me at all, it would be on her terms. I accepted because I was desperate. So I formed a team of sorts to protect myself. I asked Faebelle to join along with this girl named Finelope that I was kind of dating at the time, Raven brought in Cersie Hood and Finelope introduced us to a friend of her roommate's: a muscular Chinese girl named Meiling."

Grimm's eyes widened, not liking where this was going.

"I noticed that Meiling kind of liked Finelope's roommate, Michigo," Evan resumed, "who fairy much did not care for my relationship with Finelope. I thought that she was Michigo trying to pull a fast one on me by introducing herself under a new identity and suddenly being ripped out of nowhere so I used a special glove to pluck the information I wanted from her mind. That's how I learned that I was right about Meiling and Michigo being the same person."

"What?" Faebelle asked. "You're telling me that during all that time, Michigo was actually Meiling?"

"Yes," Evan admitted, "but it would be more accurate to say that Meiling is Michigo since Meiling is her real name and she's been attending the school under the assumed identity of Michigo with Headmaster Grimm's permission."

Faebelle then turned to the Headmaster with a look requesting that he elaborate on this.

"It's a long story (1)," Grimm said, "but here's the short version: I invited several Asian fairy teens to attend this school because I wanted to increase its ethnic diversity. Only a few accepted and it was nowhere near what I wanted. I didn't want Meiling here since she's from an unconventional story but I decided to let her come if she adopted the identity of Michigo." He then turned to face Evan. "But what does any of that have to do with Raven?"

"I sifted through Meiling's mind in front of Cerise," Evan said. "Afterwards, we hexchanged some words implying that she was hiding something big. Meiling might have shared the truth with her, who in turn shared it with Raven."

"Now that I think of it," Faebelle began, "the two of them plus Raven and Finelope seemed awfully close with each other: like the kind of closeness that comes from having a shared secret."

"If Raven does know about Meiling," Grimm said, "it would hexplain why she felt so confident about not signing on Legacy Day: that plus getting her to come back under false pretenses, she might have decided that I have no problems with distorting information when it's convenient for me."

"I see nothing wrong with that sir," Evan said.

"Probably because you're a psychopath," Faebelle added.

"I am not a psychopath," Evan retorted. "I am a high-functioning sociopath. I even have a doctor's note for it."

"That does not prove the point you think it does," Faebelle shot back. This was followed by Grimm making a loud, throat clearing sound to draw attention back to himself.

"I'm glad you shared that with me Evan," Grimm said. "This means that Raven's willingness to defy me is greater than I originally estimated."

"I have one idea that doesn't involve physically torturing her," Faebelle said.

"That is discouragingly specific but go on."

"We can make Raven want to follow her destiny. All it will take is getting her alone for a while and using a psychic artifact on her that will give her a much desired attitude adjustment that is in the possession of my mother."

"Are you talking about the mind raper?" Evan asked.

"We really need a new name for that," Faebelle said with almost tangible irritation.

"I think it fits," Evan continued. "Hexspecially seeing how we'll use it to penetrate past Raven's mental defenses and forcibly insert our ideology into the pink, moist depths of her brai...," Evan was interrupted by Faebelle slapping him in the face. She lowered her hand and smiled with pride at the hand-shaped bruise she'd given him. "I deserved that. Terminology and parallels with sexual assault aside, there is a pretty big flaw with your idea."

"And what's that?" Faebelle asked.

"We need to give Raven a chance to defend herself," Evan replied. "Before subjecting her to the effect of the... artifact, she needs to know that she ended up in that situation as a result of how much she sucks. Otherwise, she will resist with everything she has which will increase the odds of the mental conditioning not taking."

"Do you think you could get Raven into such a pliable state?" Grimm asked, finding the idea of brainwashing Raven more palatable compared to physical torture.

"Oh yes," Evan said with a devilish grin. "I have the ability to enable others to fight Raven at her level as a Kamen Rider and if she cares about her friends as much as she wants people to think she does, then it shouldn't be hard to get her to accept an uneven fight. I already have a few others who have agreed to help me anyway they can but they will be more likely to go along with this if they have your approval."

"You really think so?" Grimm asked somewhat nervously, not looking forward to the idea of having to endorse Evan's plan in front of others.

"I don't see why not," Evan answered. "This school is built on the idea that the most noble thing in the world is to do as you are told. If you say that there is nothing wrong with what we have planned for Raven, who are they to disagree?"

"That's right," Grimm admitted. "I'll tell these allies of yours that I have no problem with your intentions."

The situation he was in was actually worse than most people were aware of him. He'd had a call with the school board he reported to a while ago and they made it clear that if he didn't start turning things around soon, they would strongly consider replacing with him someone who would. It definitely didn't help that even a student like Daring, who he would normally consider a poster boy for blind loyalty to the status quo, was starting to second guess him. It was now time for drastic measures.

"Hexcellent," Evan said with a sinister grin. "Now keep in mind that Faebelle and I will hexpect to be compensated for helping you out of I imagine is a fairy tight spot. Ideally, we would prefer that you made it up to us in under the table favors."

"What kind of favors?" Grimm asked.

"Oh I'm sure we'll think of something," Faebelle said with a mischievous grin that would have made Kitty proud.

"I'll contact you when I need you to speak to my other allies," Evan said. "I know this is a little awkward but can you give me your mirrorphone number?"

"Fine, but only hext me if it's an emergency," Grimm said and then gave the information to Evan.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Evan said before he and Faebelle left his office. Once outside, Faebelle turned to him.

"There's someone I want to invite into our group," Faebelle said.

"Who?" Evan asked.

"Duchess."

"I don't think that's a great idea. She really hates my guts: like, even more than most people."

"Yes, but she also hates Raven and likes me. It shouldn't be hard to convince her to help us go after Raven."

"All right," Evan agreed.

...

Author's notes: (1) this is explained in depth in chapter 4 of 'Preludes'.


	13. Chapter 13

Inside the dojo, Meiling had taken out a folding table and some chairs. The girls sat down and began eating their pizzas. After a while, Apple spoke up.

"I've been giving the matter some thought," Apple said as they continued eating. "I cannot publicly defect but if I were to petition for some form of compromise between the Rebels and the Royals, I seriously doubt my mother would disown me for that." She then looked at Raven. "Were you serious earlier with Grimm about wanting to reach an amiable compromise or was that just to bait him into admitting to how he brought you back?"

"I was serious," Raven said. "But that's never going to happen as long as Grimm's in charge."

"Yes, that is true," Apple agreed with a somewhat downtrodden expression. "That's going to be a problem."

The girls finished their pizza while making some minor small talk.

"Want to see some cool stuff?" Raven asked apple.

"Yes please," Apple replied. They got up and went over to an entrance to Meiling's uncle's meat freezer.

"I'll show you my sparring partners first," Meiling said as she opened the door and Apple followed her inside. Apple was uncomfortable from the cold but went in a little bit and saw about a dozen corpses with bale blue skin, dressed in chinese-style clothes and had paper talismans over their faces with symbols she didn't recognize over their faces. Meiling whistled and caused them to stir awake.

"Ah," Apple cried out in shock as she stepped away from the moving corpses.

"Relax," Meiling said. "They won't hurt you unless I want them to."

"What the hex are these things?" Apple asked with a bit of shock.

"They're called rinshi. They are essentially zombies made by the magic practiced in my country. They don't hit hard but they can take a lot of damage which makes them good sparring partners."

"And you keep them in Mr. Woo's freezer when not in use because it's made for preserving dead meat."

"Hexactly," Meiling agreed with a grin.

"Yeah yeah," Finelope said dismissively as she rolled over to a large cabinet and Apple and Meiling exited the freezer. "Now this is cool." She opened the cabinet and took out a large, mostly wooden rifle with a curved opening near the end to go over someone's shoulder. "Mommy missed you. Did you miss mommy?" she asked as she cradled the rifle like a small child

"Is that the spell rifle?" Apple asked.

"Yes," Finelope answered with a bit of disappointment. "How did you know it's called that?"

"After the battle with Foundation X," Raven began, "I told Apple about it. "That came up. But I didn't know you still had it. Evan hasn't asked for it back yet?"

"No," Finelope answered. "And I hope he doesn't because that would be awkward since we're not together anymore."

"What he'd do?" Raven asked flatly, not surprised in the slightest.

"It's more like what he didn't do," Finelope answered. "I enjoyed how attractive he found me and he let me know that he didn't have any feelings for me beyond that. He warned me when we started our relationship that he was probably not capable of feelings beyond physical lust but I really hoped that would change over time. We got into a fight about how he only liked me because he finds me hot and how he thinks that since he warned me about his limited emotional range, I'm a bitch for ignoring that. Things got ugly and yeah, we're not together anymore. But enough about that: time for a demonstration."

Finelope raised the spell rifle, turned a small dial on the side to lower the energy of the shot to 20% and took aim at one of several archery targets Meiling had on one of the walls. She fired, hitting near the bullseye and made a small impact crater. She fired two more times, also hitting near the bullseye.

"I missed this," Meiling said with a wide grin, having not shot the rifle in quite some time.

"I keep a few things here too," Raven said as she went over to the same cabinet. "When we all went home for the that long weekend immediately after Legacy Day, I went through some of my mom's old things. Unsurprisingly, most of the super dangerous stuff was confiscated but a few things were overlooked. I moved them to the dojo so they'd be close by in case I need them," Raven finished as she took out what looked like a black handle to something. She flipped a switch on the side, causing a few inches long blade made of dark purple energy to spring out.

"Is that a charge blade?" Apple asked in amazement. "I've only ever seen those in museums before."

"Yes it is," Raven said with a smile. "Or rather, it's a knockoff of one that my mom made." She turned to Meiling and Finelope to explain its significance. "Around three hundred years ago, there was this group called the cult of Castie. As part of some ritual they practiced, they created weapons they called charge blades. What makes theses special is that the blade is a magical energy construct capable of slicing through lesser blades like cloth."

"Neat," Meiling said with envy, the warrior within her wondering what it would be like to wield such a blade.

"Indeed," Raven continued as she 'turned off' the blade and put it back in the cabinet. She then withdrew a simple looking wooden bow. "This may look unimpressive but looks can be deceiving. This bow contains a great deal of magical power that can bestow certain effects to any arrows notched onto it."

"What effects? And why do you have that?" Apple asked.

"The most common effect is making the arrowheads explode on impact," Raven answered. "There's also screeching, freezing, shocking, smokescreen, acidic and diamond-strength but those last two can only be used once every few days because they take up a lot energy."

"As for why I have this, it's a family heirloom," Raven continued. "It belonged to my great-great uncle, Oliver Queen. He was shipwrecked on an island for five years and fashioned this bow so he could hunt the animals there to avoid starving to death. Like all members of my family, great-great uncle Ollie had a vast reserve of magic but he lacked any aptitude for spell casting. Over the years, his magic poured into the bow as he used it and over time, all his magic went into the bow."

"Fascinating," Apple said as she looked at the bow. "Can I give it a try?"

"All right," Raven said as she handed the bow.

Apple walked over to one of Meiling's weapons racks and took an arrow out of a quiver. She notched the arrow and took aim at another archery target on the opposite wall. The target was out of focus to her, which she rectified by taking out her glasses and putting them on. She would normally never do this due to not wanting to be seen with her glasses but she considered that it was irrelevant compared to what she had just learned. With the target now in focus, Apple shot the arrow. It hit several inches from the bullseye and created a patch of ice from the effect Apple thought of before firing.

"I'm rusty," Apple said in disappointment.

"That's rusty?" Raven asked in shock.

"Archery's kind of a hobby of mine," Apple explained. She took two more shots at another target, doing a little better this time.

"Impressive," Raven congratulated. "I tried to incorporate the bow and the charge blade into my arsenal but I couldn't figure out how. Also, I'm a really bad shot. Looks like the bow might be better in your hands."

Apple was stunned to hear this given their families' bad history and didn't know how to react.

"I have one other thing from my mother that I keep here," Raven said as she went back to the cabinet, pulled out a notebook and handed it to Apple. "This contains notes my mother made on a ritual she was attempting to make that would empower some of her soldiers. She never got it to work and I only understand about half of it but you might find it interesting."

Apple began flipping through the notebook. She understood a bit of what was in there and she was deeply intrigued.

"Fascinating," Apple said aloud, then closed the notebook and faced Raven. "Mind if I hang on to this for a while so I go over it in more detail?"

"Sure," Raven agreed even though she was perplexed by Apple's request.

The girls made small talk for a while and then left the dojo. Raven and Apple got back on board Demona and headed towards the school.

"There's one other thing I want to go over with you," Apple said when they were back in their room. "I didn't want to bring it up at the dojo because I sensed that you're not fairy close with Finelope."

"Yeah, she's more of a friend of a friend," Raven admitted. "What is it?"

"There's something else you haven't been telling me," Apple said.

 _Does she know that I know about Darling_ , Raven wondered to herself.

"Is there a reason you spend so much time," Apple continued, "you've spent a lot of time lately looking through lingerie catalogues but you never order anything?"

"Yes," Raven answered as she gathered her courage. "As you've probably already pieced together, I enjoy looking at pictures of barely clad women because I think I'm gay."

"See, that wasn't so hard," Apple said with a reassuring voice as she put her hand on Raven's shoulder.

"And I have the hots for your best friend, Briar," Raven finished.

"I stand corrected," Apple said in confusion, leaving her reassuring hand on Raven for a few seconds before withdrawing it.

"I haven't told her," Raven continued. "And I don't think I will."

"That's probably for the best," Apple agreed. "We've never talked about that matter but I seriously doubt she can like you that way."

"I know," Raven admitted with a depressed look. She instantly brightened up, however when an alarm on her mirrorphone went off.

"Almost time for the call from with your Monster High friends?" Apple asked, guessing that's what the alarm was for.

"Yes," Raven answered. "Want me to introduce you?"

"I'd like that," Apple admitted. She felt a little offended earlier when would go out of her way to keep Apple away from these calls but she now understood why.

 _Raven most likely told them about how Grimm deceived her into coming back_ , Apple thought. _She thought it would be hextremely awkward if to bring that up while I doubted her. But that's not a problem now that we're all on the same page._

Raven went to her magic mirror and began establishing the connection between it and the mirrorphone she left with Cleo. A picture came up on the mirror of several monster girls.

"Apple," Raven began, "say hi to Cleo, Draculara, Frankie and Operreta. Ghouls, this is my roommate and close friend, Apple White."

"Hi," the ghouls all said at once as they waved to her.

"It's nice to meet you all," Apple replied.

"Raven told us a lot about you," Draculara said.

"Well that makes this awkward," Apple said. "Raven said she liked it there and that you made her feel welcome but she didn't go into detail past that."

"Then let's make up for that," Draculara said and the ghouls started telling Apple about themselves.


	14. Chapter 14

While Raven and Apple were having their sharing session at Meiling's dojo, Faebelle had hexted to meet her in the woods near the school.

"What's going on?" Duchess asked.

"Evan and I have a plan to make Raven pay for her actions on Legacy Day," Faebelle said. "Want to join in?"

Duchess thought this over for a while. She hated both Raven and Evan so she was naturally conflicted with this prospect of helping one to hurt the other. She took several factors into account and decided that with Grimm and the other powers that be being so pissed Raven, there wasn't much to worry about in terms of punishment. That still left a big problem though.

"Sure," Duchess replied. "But Raven's got that weird armor of her's. Do you have a plan for that?"

"Yes," Faebelle grinned as she took out an Astro Switch from her small bag. "This will give you enough power to fight Raven at that level."

"How?" Duchess asked as she grabbed the switch and started looking it over.

"I don't know the specifics," Faebelle began. "All I know is that the thing contains a great deal of cosmic energy that I think Evan got from starlight."

"You got this from Evan?" Duchess asked indignantly, having second thoughts about using the switch.

"Yes, but I swear that he has nothing planned," Faebelle answered. "Nothing hexcept hurting Raven that is. As for how it works, it will transform you into a monster if you press the little red button."

Duchess paused as she wondered if she hated Raven enough to use something like this. Unfortunately, while she was thinking this over, the Astro Swtich turned into sparkling light and went into her body.

"That's not supposed to happen," Faebelle said in a slight panic.

"What's going ahhhhhh...," Duchess was interrupted by an agonizing pain in her stomach. Before her crying out could escalate to its fullest, she went into shock and lost consciousness. Faebelle grabbed her before she plopped to the ground like a dead fish.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," Faebelle said in panic as wondered what to do. The first thing she decided was necessary was to see if Duchess was still alive. She put her head up to Duchess's chest and was immensely relieved to find a heartbeat.

 _That could have been fairy bad for me_ , Faebelle thought and then started wondering what to do with Duchess since leaving her alone and unconscious in the woods would be wrong for many reasons. She picked Duchess and started flying her towards someone who could help.

...

Several hours later, Duchess began to wake up. She looked around and saw that she was laying down on a couch in Baba Yaga's office.

 _I have no idea how I got here_ , Duchess thought, _but that feeling of something in my insides wanting to claw its way out is gone and that's definitely a plus._

"Good, you're up," Baba Yaga said. "I was worried about how you'd bounce back from what happened to you."

"I'm not even sure what that was," Duchess said in confusion as she got up.

"Faebelle brought you to me," Baba Yaga began. "She said you had a bad reaction to an artifact she gave you. Then I looked you over and found out what actually happened. The object she gave you was made of cosmic energy, which can be gathered from concentrated starlight. Your own inner magic is also fueled by cosmic energy, specifically from the constellation Cygnus, the swan. When you touched the object Faebelle gave you, your body instinctively absorbed the cosmic energy from it."

"And the pain I felt which made me pass out," Duchess said, "happened because I took in too much energy all out once?"

"Correct," Baba Yaga answered. "How do you feel right now? Do you feel different than usual?"

"No," Duchess responded. "I feel great now that the pain is gone."

"That is good," Baba Yaga said with an awkward look, "because I have some bad news for you. When you absorbed the cosmic energy from the object, it altered your internal magic. You can't turn into a swan anymore."

"What?" Duchess said in complete shock. Turning into a swan was a big part of her story and while she wasn't looking forward to the ending, that meant she couldn't complete her story. With how seriously everyone took completing a story, this was essentially the same as her life's purpose being taken from her. What she was most worried about though was how when the school found out, she'd be completely ostracized by the other Royals and considered worse than a Rebel.

Duchess found her composure and turned her thoughts from despair to rage.

"What about Evan and Faebelle?" She asked with a grim expression. "I want their asses on a platter for this."

"Of course you do," Baba Yaga said awkwardly. "I was told to contact Headmaster Grimm as soon as you woke up. You can talk to him about this."

Baba Yaga went to a nearby desk, grabbed her Mirrorphone and called Headmaster Grimm. Once they were connected, Baba Yaga put him on video chat.

"Duchess is up, sir," Baba Yaga said.

"Hexcellent," Grimm said to both of them. "Now Duchess, Evan and Faebelle told me about the unfortunate accident that made you pass out and changed your magic. They want you to know that they are fairy sorry or in Evan's case, as sorry as someone who doesn't hexperience guilt can be. And Baba Yaga will fix your magic so it works properly again. Right?"

"It will take some time," Baba Yaga began, "since I've never seen this particular problem before but yes, I will help Duchess."

"How are Evan and Faebelle going to be punished?" Duchess rudely asked.

"That matter is complicated," Grimm calmly replied. "Evan and Faebelle are helping me with something at the moment and I need them to proceed uninterrupted. They will be punished for almost preventing you from fulfilling your destiny but that will have to wait."

"I understand," Duchess lied as she restrained herself, knowing that incessantly bitching at the Headmaster would be the quickest way to turn him against her. Grimm ended the call and Baba Yaga lowered her phone. "Is there anything in this room you won't miss if I break it?"

"That chair creaks more than I'd like," Baba Yaga answered as she pointed at a wooden chair. Duchess went over to the chair and with a loud cry, brought down an arcing axe kick that broke it into several large pieces. "Feeling better?"

"Much," Duchess said with a wide smile. She then left Baba Yaga's office and began plotting her next move.

...

It was now Saturday morning. Apple had finished breakfast and was walking the halls to her next destination when Blondie walked up behind her and got her attention.

"Hello Apple," Blondie said. "Can I have a moment of your time?"

"Of course," Apple replied.

"Great, but first let's get some privacy," Blondie said as she dragged Apple into an empty classroom. "First thing's first: I'm not really Blondie."

There was a shimmering effect around 'Blondie' as her image disappeared and was replaced with Evan's.

"What do you want?" Apple said with almost tangible annoyance, knowing that she was not going to like whatever this sanity challenge villain-in-training had to say.

"I want to punish Raven for her actions on Legacy Day," Evan said. "While I don't care about how that will affect you, it will lead you to being able to follow your destiny so it is in your best interest to assist me."

"Maybe I don't want to assist you?" Apple shot back. "Maybe I think that you're so evil that whatever you're planning to do to help me will also hurt many other people and the right thing to do would be to not assist you?"

"You have a lot ridining on following your story," Evan calmly (and correctly) said. "You have to help me with my endeavor, you just don't want to admit it. When you realize that, use this."

Evan took out an Astro Switch and threw it to Apple, who quickly opened her bag so it fell into there.

 _Damn_ , Evan thought. _I was hoping that she'd catch it in such a way that she'd accidentally press the button. I can't ask for it back or telekinetically force her to press the button: she might scream and draw people here, then I'll be in the awkward position of having to hexplain how I disguised myself as someone Apple trusted to get her by herself because I wasn't planning anything sinister against her. No matter: societal pressure will draw her to press the switch at some point._

"When you're ready to fight for your destiny," Evan continued, "press the red button."

 _And turn into a revenge seeking, constellation-based monster? I don't think so_ , Apple thought to herself. Evan then teleported away from her.

"Show off," Apple chastised to the empty room.


	15. Chapter 15

It was Saturday afternoon and Evan had gathered together all the willing recruits for his cabal: himself, Faebelle, Lizzie, Blondie, Hopper, Daring and Duchess. They were meeting in patch of woods not from the school to avoid prying eyes.

"Hello Duchess," Evan said with false cordiality like the huge slimeball he was. "I'm so sorry about earlier: I had no idea that would happen. Also, it was all Faebelle's idea to make that offer." Faebelle glowered at Evan for this.

"I don't care about that right now," Duchess said as glanced around and looked at Daring. "There are other things for me to be pissed at."

"Wow, never thought I'd see you unhappy to meet Daring," Faebelle said in amazement.

"Indeed," Evan said in fascination. "Are you going through a lesbian phase?"

"No," Duchess replied.

 _Not after how badly the last one went_ , she mentally added.

"That's unfortuante," Evan said. "But onto why we're all here. I have a plan to change Raven's mind about following her destiny with an artifact Faebelle is going to get from her mother. Unfortunately, for the artifact to work, we need to formally challenge Raven so she loses after having a chance to save herself to weaken her resolve. With your help, I'm going to stack the odds against her so much that our success is guaranteed. Sadly, this is everyone who would agree to see me. I tried casting a bigger net this morning but it didn't go well."

...

(Begin flashback)

 _"Come on Justine," Evan said to the ebony Dancer. "Unless you want to be the only one of your sisters not to achieve her destiny, you have to help me."_

 _"I don't care about my destiny," Justine began, "enough to help you with whatever evil you're planning, you psychotic dick bag."_

 _..._

 _"It's simple, Lilly," Evan said to her. "Help me and I will share with you an illusion I can make of what I think Apple looks like naked."_

 _"I would like that fairy much," Lilly replied with blushed cheeks. "But I'm not going to help you."_

 _..._

 _"Think about it Dexter," Evan began. "By helping me, you achieve the kind of greatness that will show all those people who've ever thought of you as just Daring's less attractive and less talented brother."_

 _"Like you," Dexter replied with a scowl._

 _"Riiiiiight," Evan said awkwardly._

 _..._

 _"Come on Humphrey," Evan said. "You've helped me before." (1)_

 _"I'm not proud of that," Humphrey replied. "Definitely not enough to help you with whatever you're planning this time: hexspecially since you already showed me your rendition of what Apple looks like naked."_

(End flashback)

...

"What hexactly are we going to do?" Daring asked.

"We're going to beat the crap out of Raven and metaphorically rewire her brain to make her want to poison Apple," Evan clarified.

"This seems hexcessive," Daring said in hesitation.

"And necessary," Lizzie spoke up. "I will do whatever it takes to secure my destiny of restoring Wonderland."

"An admirable goal," Daring continued, "that could be made far less admirable if achivied through ignoble means."

"I know what those words mean but that sentence doesn't make any sense," Lizzie countered.

"Well put Ms. Hearts," Headmaster Grimm said from behind her and Daring as he walked over to Evan and Faebelle. He had decided to join this meeting late so he could make a dramatic entrance and he was fairy glad that he had made this decision.

"What are you doing here, headmaster?" Blondie asked.

"Evan told me about his plan earlier," Grimm said. "I know some of you may have reservations about his plan but I am here to tell you that it has my full support. Just don't go around telling everyone that, all right?"

"And you think," Daring began, "that Evan's plan is better than what I suggested to you earlier?"

"Yes, because his plan involves Raven actually pledging her destiny," Grimm shot back, "as opposed to your defeatist plan to send Raven away so we won't have to deal with her."

"At least my plan," Daring began, "didn't involve hexcessive violence for it's own sake and getting help from an sociopath."

"The sake of our way of life is at stake," Grimm countered. "The ends justify the means."

"That sounds like something he'd say," Daring replied with scorn as he looked at Evan.

Evan said nothing as he walked up to Daring. Evan conjured a glob of a liquid metal-like substance and then expanded it into a circle over a foot across. Daring saw his reflection in the substance and forgot about Evan as he began admiring his own handsomeness. Evan quickly put a special glove on his right hand, thrusted his arm though the makeshift mirror and his hand phased into Daring's head.

The glove Evan had on gave him the ability to read people's mind which he was doing to Daring right now. After looking through his mind (which happened very quickly because there wasn't a lot to look through) and getting the info he wanted, he commanded Daring to sleep. The blonde prince slumped forward as he complied with the mental command. Evan caught him and gently laid him on the ground.

"He has no intention of aiding us," Evan said as he faced the group. "He only came here in the hopes of talking us down from what needed to be. I erased all knowledge of this meeting from his mind. This interuption actually brings me to our next point: you will all have to undergo a loyalty test like Daring went through."

"What?" Duchess said. "After all you've done to me, I'm not letting you put your filthy hand in my brain. I could overlook the angonizing pain you put me through because that was an accident of your original plan to turn me rabid with the swithch's mind altering side effects but this is the last straw. I'm leaving."

"Bye," Faebelle said with a wave.

"I'll see you back at the room," Lizzie said.

 _Damn_ , Duchess thought. _It looks like they've picked their sides._

Duchess turned around and ran away from the group.

"I seem to remember you being better at this," Faebelle said mockingly to Evan.

"Me too," Evan agreed with a dejected tone, remembering that gathering and keeping allies went much smoother when he was doing it against Foundation X. He then began walking towards Hopper. "As for the loyalty test, don't worry: it won't hurt a bit."

He stuck his gloved hand into Hopper's head, causing him to cry out in pain. Evan removed his hand once he'd verified Hopper's allegiance. Hopper panted a bit as he recovered from the ordeal.

"You said that wouldn't hurt a bit: that hurt a lot," Hopper said in outrage then widened his eyes as he realized that Evan's statement was technically true. "Oh, you son of a bitch."

"I've been called worse," Evan said calmly before turning to Blondie and Lizzie. "Now which of you ladies wants to go next."

Blondie both looked nervous and pointed at each other.

 _So much for Operation Dick-stab_ , Duchess thought as she continued heading back to the school. Operation dick-stab was what Duchess had named her plan to get close to Evan and then get her revenge. The name was chosen for being a play on the term backstab as well as being the manner she wanted to take her revenge.

Back with Evan and his cabal, he had just finished administering the 'loyalty test' on Blondie and Lizzie, which they passed.

"With that out of the way," Evan said with a wicked smile, "it's time for empowering part. But first, get in close everyone."

The five of them got together and evan teleported them to the abandoned rock quarry where he, Raven and their allies had fought back the cell of Foundation X that had come to their world.

"Why are we here?" Faebelle asked, recognizing the spot and finding it an inappropriate spot to plot against Raven.

"Because there's lots of open space for training," Evan answered, then took out a blue tool that looked like a glue gun with no glue and faced the other three members of his party. "For the first part, I need to use this to mark a spot on your bodies. I would recommend a spot that you can conceal with clothing but can get to in a tight spot."

Hopper picked a spot on his right forearm, Lizzie decided on the front part of her left shoulder and Blondie went with the back of her neck. The three of them moved their clothes (hair in Blondie's case) out of the way as Evan used the tool on them.

He added a spell to the tool when he used it on Hopper that Evan hoped would filter out the memories mental side effects. He had no idea if it would actually work and was going to use Hopper as an unknowing test subject.

After making the marks on the girls without the addition of the spell, he then took out three objects that resembled USB thumb drives. He gave Lizzie a red one, Blondie a purple one and Hopper a black one.

"Long story short," Evan began, "These are called Gaia Memories. Press the small switch on these things and put then put the exposed metal end into the injector ports I made. The objects will go inside you and and transform you into monsters with power roughly equal to Raven's armor."

It's too late to back out now, the three of them thought.

 **Heat** , a mechanical voice came from Lizzie's Memory after she pressed the switch. Blondie then pressed hers.

 **Triceratops**

Lastly, Hopper pressed the switch on his Memory.

 **Hopper**

"Seriously?" Hopper asked and then inserted the memory along with the girls. Orange energy diamonds appeared over them before subsiding and changing them now.

Lizzie was now a red humanoid wearing what appeared to be a red mask with flame designs and a pale mouth area exposed with red lips. She seemed to be wearing red and gold shin guards, gauntlets, chest and shoulder pieces as well.

Blondie was now a light purple humanoid triceratops monster with small gold horns sticking out from the knees, waist, chest and shoulder sides. Strangely, she only had two horns on her head. She was also wielding a stone club.

Hopper became a brightly colored humanoid bug creature. His hands and feet were red while his arms were blue and his legs were in red, yellow and blue colored sections. There were teeth-like things along his upper arms and legs as well as insect-wing like objects along his shoulders. His head was red with a grotesque mouth There was a large hook object segmented like an insect leg on top of his right hand.

Evan conjured more floating, makeshift mirrors like the one he used on Daring so the others could look at their new forms.

"Oh, I get it: Hopper as in grass hopper," Hopper said as he understood the name of his Gaia Memory.

"I do like how much more powerful I feel," Blondie began, "but this form is pretty ugly. And what the hex is a triceratops?"

"Some kind of big lizard," Evan began, "that existed on a parallel earth like dozens of millions of years ago."

"Okay," Blondie said awkwardly, not caring enough to Evan hexplain how that made sense. Lizzie formed a small fireball in her hand and then snuffed it out.

"I'm happy with what I've got," Lizzie said.

"Now it's time for you to test your new abilities," Evan said before teleporting away and then coming back with an obese cat. "This is Lil' Fatty. He doesn't look like much now but I can change that."

Evan took out another Gaia Memory and pressed it.

 **Beast**

Evan dropped the memory and telekinetally guided it to a bald spot on Fatty's back that he had created an injector port on earlier. The memory went in and changed him.

Fatty was now a large, bestial humanoid with a blue and legs and a face on the torso. He had black fur over the left arm which ended in a large claw and a bronze-looking object over the right arm that ended in a two-pronged claw. His face looked like he was wearing a natural headdress with curved parts over the eyes and flaps that came down from the side of the face.

"What are we supposed to do for this test?" Hopper asked.

"Survive," Evan replied with a sadistic grin as he gave Fatty a mental command to attack.


	16. Chapter 16

While Evan was gathering his cabal, Raven and Darling had gotten together in the woods near the school. Raven had considered options for Darling's request to have rider abilities of her own and was now ready to try something. The two of them were sitting cross-legged on a blanket that Raven had brought. She currently had her hands magically phased inside Darling to get a better idea of how the princess Charming's magic worked.

"Hexcellent," Raven said. "You have an impressive amount of magic inside you. It's usually used to keep your beauty imaculate and power that time freeze thing that's triggered when you flip your hair. It should be no problem for me to rearrange your magic so that it works a little differently."

Raven used Darling's magic to create a rider belt for Darling that appeared around her waist. The new driver was made of dazzling silver and had a blue stone in the center of its circular buckle.

"I had to use up a lot of your magic to make that driver," Raven said as she reached into a bad she had brought, took out a glowing light-blue potion and handed it to Darling. "Drink this to replenish it."

Darling uncorked the glass bottle and drank the glowing liquid.

"Mmm, sparkly," Darling described the taste. Both of them sat up. "So how hexactly do I transform now?"

"Now you channell your magic into the driver and it will manifest the armor around you," Raven hexplained.

"I have no idea how to do that," Darling said discouragingly.

"I can show you how to focus your magic," Raven continued. "It would take several hours though. Since that sounds really boring, I'm going to cheat instead: show me your ring."

Darling raised her hand and showed Raven the silver ring she wore on it. Raven put her thumb and index finger the ring and manifested a glowing purple aura around her fingers.

"I just put a basic enchantment on the ring," Raven clarified. "If it worked, all you have to do is picture your magic as a glowing aura around you and imagine it flowing into your hand."

Darling did as instructed and was rewarded by a silvery aura appearing around her hand. She smiled from ear to ear as she knew what to do next.

"Henshin!" Darling cried as she placed her hand on the buckle. A white flash surrounded her as her armor appeared.

Darling's armor was a silvery-white color that looked almost like it was made of starlight. The armor was stylized to look like a knight's armor and had blue trims. The helmet had the traditional Kamen Rider 'bug eyes', but Darling's were glowing blue. There was crossbow like weapon attached to her left arm with handle she was gripping. In her right hand, she was holding a sword with a silvery-blue star shaped hilt and a straight blade that was about three quarters the length of one of her legs.

"How do you feel?" Raven asked.

"Awesome," Darling said. "But how do I look?" Raven took out her Mirrorphone, took a pic of Darling and then showed it to her. "Also awesome."

"Now you need a rider name," Raven said as she put her hand under her chin. "I'm thinking Kamen Rider Star Knight because it goes with the knight look and the coloring theme. Also, it sounds kind of like starry night, which goes great with my name of Kamen Rider Nocturnal."

"Star Knight it is then," Darling agreed.

She then looked at the crossbow weapon on her left arm and noticed two small buttons on the sides of the handle. She pointed the weapon towards the ground and pressed the left button, causing a thin bolt of silver energy to shoot out. She also noticed that on the side of the crossbow closest to her, there were five thin bars that were glowing and shooting the crossbow made one of the bars 'turn off'.

 _That means I only have five shots per battle_ , Darling mentally deduced. _Or maybe five shots until it recharges. But how would I do that?_

Darling put this aside as she pressed the right button on the handle. This made a circular shield of blue energy appear around her arm, starting along the limbs of the crossbow.

"All right," Star Knight said, pleased that her arsenal included options for close range attack, long ranged attack and a defensive option. "What you would say to a sparring match?"

"Sounds good," Raven said as summoned her driver and sent magic to her right hand. "Henshin!" In a flash of black light, she was now wearing her armor.

"You should be warned though," Kamen Rider Nocturnal said as she held the Night Axe in guitar mode. "I like to fight dirty. Case in point, let me introduce you to Maggie." Nocturnal continued by playing a few strings on her guitar and summoned her magical duplicate, also in rider armor.

"Two against one: I still like my odds," Star Knight boasted. Maggie responded by conjuring a purple energy dagger in her right hand. She threw the dagger, causing it to turn into a ray that shot towards Star Knight, who responded activating her shield in time to block the ray.

 _She wasn't kidding about fighting dirty,_ Darling thought. _Then again, the phrase dirty fighting implies that every fight has clearly established set of rules that are strictly enforced. Since that's not the case, Raven has the right idea keeping her options open._ She looked at the side of her crossbow and noticed that the empty bar from earlier was now filled. _So the crossbow recharges itself at a rate of about one shot per thirty seconds. Good to know._

Nocturnal and Maggie ran in arcing paths to take Star Knight from opposite sides. Star Knight aimed her crossbow at Nocturnal, figuring that being weighed down by the Night Axe would make her an easier target, and fired two bolts. Nocturnal saw the bolts coming and played a power chord on her guitar that created a sort of sonic shield that deflected the bolts.

Star Knight could hear Maggie charge at her from behind so she turned around and swung her sword in a blind slash that hit Maggie in the chest. Star Knight tried to make another slash but Maggie sidestepped it and punched Star Knight in the chest. Nocturnal struck a power chord on her guitar that sent out a lighting bolt from the neck.

Star Knight heard the chord and knew that Raven was attacking her from behind. She thought about moving out the way of the attack and this somehow caused her to rapidly move to the side in a dazzling aura. With Star Knight gone, the bolt hit Maggie, causing her to de-materialize.

"How did I do that?" Star Knight asked out loud, confused but also pleased to discover this new ability. She began running towards Nocturnal, attempting to use this ability again but getting no results. _Maybe it requires a recharge period, like the crossbow bolts,_ Darling theorized.

Nocturnal played a few strings on her guitar, causing brown sound waves to hit Star Knight and tripled her weight through manipulation of gravity. While Star Knight was caught off-guard but how sluggish she suddenly felt, Nocturnal charged her and swung the Night Axe at Star Knight's right shin. This made the celestial rider fall to the ground, which significantly hurt to her new weight.

Nocturnal raised the Night Axe and struck at Star Knight, causing spark damage. Before she could deliver another such strike, Star Knight aimed her crossbow and began emptying your her store of bolts at the dark rider. While Nocturnal was staggering backwards from the shots as the spark damage occurred, the gravity spell on Star Knight wore off.

The celestial rider got back on her feet and slashed at Nocturnal, who saw the strike coming. Nocturnal evaded and countered by spinning in place and delivering an axe strike to Star Knight's back, causing her to stagger forward a few steps. The dark rider went for another axe strike but Star Knight activated her shield and rammed it into the axe. This created an opening for the celestial rider to make two quick sword slashes.

 _Need to change things up_ , Raven thought as she dematerialized the Night Axe and then threw two energy daggers from left hand that hit Star Knight, followed by two more from the right hand. Nocturnal then delivered two punches.

Star Knight used the dazzling aura ability from earlier get behind Nocturnal and slash her back. Nocturnal took a few quick steps forward, rematerialized the Night Axe and played a few strings that made some greenish-yellow sound wave Star Knight, causing a sudden and an intense wave of nausea. Nocturnal hit Star Knight in the chest, causing her to fall backwards due to her already impaired balance.

The dark rider went to strike while Star Knight was down but she aimed her crossbow at Nocturnal's leg and fired. The bolt hit Nocturnal's shin, stunning her for a second. Star Knight used this opportunity to grab Nocturnal's leg and make her fall down.

"Call it a draw?" Star Knight asked.

"Sure," Notucturnal answered.

They decided to lay on the ground for a few minutes before getting up and dispelling their armors. They then praised each other's skill for a bit, Raven impressed with Darling's sword skill and Darling with Raven's hand-to-hand skill and cleverness.

Darling hexpressed gratitude for giving her the ability to become Star Knight and asked for a rematch some time. Raven accepted.

...

Around this time, Duchess had gone to see Baba Yaga for another treatment. Baba Yaga began looking over Duchess in an attempt to better understand how her magic had been changed. She could tell that something was bothering Duchess and asked her about it. Duchess began telling her about the meeting earlier.

"And when I saw that he can read minds," Duchess continued, "I knew I had to get out of there before he found out my true intentions."

"What is your plan now Duchess?" Baba Yaga asked.

"The end goal," Duchess continued, "is to put my foot so far up Evan's ass that I can leave a shoe print on his large intestine but I have no idea how to get there.

"Maybe you'll be in a better position," Baba Yaga said, "to accomplish that by foiling his plan for Raven."

"But how would I do that?" Duchess asked. "Between allies, weird crap and Headmaster Grimm in his corner, Evan's too formidable for me to take on directly and with his mind reading thing, I can't slither around him like a snake in the grass. What else can I do?" Upon saying this, Duchess's eyes widened in shock as one unlikely and drastic option occurred to her. "You think I should approach Raven with the idea of a team-up?"

"Yes," Baba Yaga replied flatly. Duchess paused for a second as the blunt-ness caught her off guard.

"There's a lot of bad history between me and Raven," Duchess said. "Like even more that between me and Evan. Or me and Apple. Or me and Ashlynn."

"Is there anyone you don't hate?" Baba Yaga asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Since most of the people I consider friends have sided with Evan, it's pretty much just Sparrow now."

"My condolences for," Baba Yaga paused for a second, "several things, but consider this: who is the greater threat to Raven's immediate future, you or Evan?"

"Evan, by a lot," Duchess considered things now. "This might work. But I would need the monster form that Evan accidentally gave me. Can you hold off on untangling the web of shit Evan turned my magic into?"

"I'm still in the planning stages," Baba Yaga answered, "so there's nothing to hold off right now."

"Perfect," Duchess said with a smile, feeling infitely better than before this meeting. "You have been fairy helpful. I'll keep your name out of this when I approach Raven."

...

Back with Evan and the (what could generously be called) training exercise he had started, it had not gone well. As Lizzie, Blondie and Hopper found out the hard way, Fatty's Beast Memory gave him a regeneration ability that healed wounds faster than they could inflict them.

The three of them did discover what abilities their new forms had. Lizzie could shoot fireballs, Blondie had a great deal of physical strength and Hopper could jump around easily as well as deliver powerful kicks.

"You did better than I originally thought you would," Evan said. "Hexspecially you Hopper. How'd you learn to kick like that?"

"I like to go to Kung-fu movies," Hopper answered, "at this small theater in Asia Town. Attempting to mimic what I saw plus how the agility from this form is similar to what I have as a frog, it all just lined up."

"Did you have to start us with something so hard?" Blondie asked between panting for breaths after reverting to human form.

"Raven's not going to go easy on you," Evan said. "You should be ready to take a few hits. Between what I've seen and a few other things I have in mind to bolster our forces, our odds are looking good."

"You're going to recruit more allies?" Blondie asked.

"Not recruit so much as ... manufacture," Evan cryptically answered.

"What the hex are you on about?" Lizzie angrily asked, having reverted to human form as well.

"I'd tell you but that would spoil the surprise," Evan replied with a smirk.


	17. Chapter 17

Daring was currently asleep in his dorm room. Following being rejected from Evan's cabal, Faebelle had gotten a key from Hopper for their shared room and sneaked him into the dorm which was easy since so few people wanted to spend a Saturday afternoon in the dorms. Evan had hexplained to her that Daring would wake having no memory of either the meeting earlier or being asked to go to the meeting by Lizzie and Blondie.

Daring's mirrorphone was going off and it woke him up. He stirred for a bit and grabbed the mirrorphone.

"Hello," he said.

"Hi Daring," Dexter said from the other end. "I'm been sending you hexts for the past twenty minutes. Where are you?"

"In my room," Daring answered. "I took a nap."

"On a Saturday afternoon?" Dexter asked in bafflement. "Since when do you do that?"

"Since now, apparently," Daring replied with confusion. He decided to quickly check the time on his phone and saw that it was much later than he thought. "I have no memory of the last two hours, including taking that nap. Should I be worried?"

"Probably," Dexter said, not liking how this sounded. "Apple and I have something we want to go over with you. We'll be in your room soon."

After Evan's failed attempt to recruit him, Dexter had gone to see Apple to discuss Evan's machinations. They compared notes for a bit and then decided to share this matter with Daring, leading up to the weird phone call.

Some time later, Apple and Dexter arrived outside Daring's room. Daring told them that it was unlocked so they went inside and saw him standing in front of a mirror without a shirt on.

"I don't think this is the best time to be admiring yourself, Daring," Apple said dryly.

"That's not the only reason I'm doing this," Daring responded as he continued looking over his bare torso. "I'm checking for any cuts or bruises I may have gotten during the time I can't account for. Do you see anything?" Daring asked he turned his back to them.

"You look fine," Dexter said. "Do you feel fine?"

"Yeah," Daring answered as he went over to his bed and put his shirt back on. "You wanted to talk to me about something."

"Yeah," Apple began. "Dexter and I were approached by Evan Chanter earlier today to join some kind of gang he's putting together to go after Raven, though he didn't go into detail about what hexactly that meant I know what he has in mind," Apple said worryingly and took out the Astro Switch from her bag that Evan gave her earlier. Apple then began hexplaining how she knew what the Astro Switch was from watching Raven observe one the Kamen Riders she liked through her mirror and surmised that Evan was planning to give one to his recruits so they could beat up Raven.

"Why'd he give you one when," Dexter began, "when you havne't joined him?"

"Evan is sure that I'll use it at some point," Apple answered, "because I have so much dependent on following my destiny that I have to help him. And I might have if I didn't know about the mental side-effects."

"Why would Evan not try to recruit me?" Daring asked.

"I know you like to think that the world revolves around you," Apple said, "but there are other things at work here."

"Humor me for a moment," Daring continued. "I'm Raven's loudest opponent: what reason would he have to not ask me?"

"Maybe he did ask you," Dexter spoke up with a look of shock in his eyes as a theory occurred to him. "But you didn't want to go along with whatever he had planned so he erased your memory to cover his tracks."

"Son of a bitch," Daring said as he angrily put his right fist into his left hand as he realized how the pieces fit. "What are we going to do about this?"

"Whatever Evan is planning, it deserves to be foiled on general principle," Dexter said. "Which is why I'm going to help Raven however I can. Plus, Evan's made fun of me a lot in the past and this seems like a good pretense to relieve him of some of his teeth," Dexter finished by menacingly cracking his knuckles.

"All right," Daring said in understanding. "But why are you sharing this with me?"

"I know how much you like to prove yourself," Apple began. "What I propose is a test of your nobility: for you to help Raven despite how much you personally hate her."

There was an awkward silence as Daring considered this request.

"Fine, I'll help Raven," he begrudgingly agreed. "But mostly because if mom and dad found out that Dex threw himself into danger and I didn't do anything about it, then things would get weird at home."

"Thank you," Apple said. She wasn't proud of asking her future fiancée who she wasn't sure that she loved to come to his political enemy's aid in her breasted time of need but she'd get over it if it meant protecting Raven.

...

Raven had left from the woods after the sparring session with Darling. She checked her mirrorphone (which she had turned off for the meeting with Darling) and saw urgent hexts from Dexter and Lilly. She called them up and they hexplained that Evan had attempted to recruit them for something he was planning against her.

 _And after I helped him with Foundation X_ , Raven thought bitterly. She was not surprised by this development because she knew that her alliance with the sanity-challenged magic user would not last past that crisis. She was only pissed.

She got another hext from Apple, telling her to come to their room ASAP. Raven made it there in a few minutes and found Apple sitting on her bed.

"We have a problem," Apple said. "Specifically, you have a problem and I have part of the solution."

"Is this about Evan?" Raven asked and Apple nodded yes. "Dexter and Lilly told me about his attempts to recruit them."

"What they didn't tell you," Apple kept going, "is that Evan also attempted to recruit me and gave me one of these." Once again, she took out the Astro Switch from earlier. "I haven't pressed the red button, in case you're wondering."

"Then you won't mind giving it to me," Raven said with an outstretched hand. She knew that some people were capable of hiding the mental effects of using an Astro Switch and was worried that Apple was currently doing that.

"All right," Apple agreed, understanding Raven's concerns and handed over the switch. "Don't destroy it though: we may be able to find a use for it. More importantly, think of what Evan giving me one of those means."

"He's gathering strike force to come after me," Raven said worryingly. "From how he did that with Foundation X, I know that he doesn't need much to work with. If he only got two people to side with him, he could give them Astro Switches and then make yummies out of their desire to fight me, that's four monsters right there. Plus the two he has left over from earlier and Faebelle taking her dragon person form, that puts the conservative estimate at seven monsters. And I don't think Evan's going to be courteous enough to send them against me one at a time. Shit."

"That's the bad news and here's the good news," Apple said as she went to a desk and grabbed the notebook Raven had given her last night. "I've been reading through this notebook and I think that by working together, we can pull off this ritual."

"What?" Raven said in surprise, not understanding how the two of them could perform a ritual her mother failed at.

"Hear me out," Apple continued. "So you know how our stories are sent to other worlds so they can be told there. Well according to your mother's notes, there's at least one case of the connection working both ways. A number of these worlds have their own stories about these groups of five in brightly colored outfits. In our world, this created an energy field that's undetectable except to magic users who know what to look for. Your mother found this energy field but couldn't make use of it because the stories were of great heroes and trying to use that to create a group of powered-up minions for herself was the magical equivalant of forcing a square beg through a round hole. Thanks to your mother's meticulous note taking, it should not be hard for you tap into this energy and use it for a non-evil purpose."

"Like using it to empower five people to help me when I need it most," Raven finished Apple's train of thought with a doubtful tone. "Putting aside the matter of finding volunteers, my mother intended this to work with the Dremora bonding ritual."

From what Raven remembered from skimming through the notebook once, the ritual was meant to make someone more powerful by making them one with a breed of demonic animal spirits called the Dremora. The reason for the Queen wanting to incorporate these two things together was that many of the groups of five had themes to them and she thought that making the Dremora spirits the theme for a group would yield potent results.

Unfortunately for her and fortunately for everyone else, the former Evil Queen ran into another serious roadblock. While the Dremora were demonic in nature, they weren't inherently evil. She could only get a few, weaker spirits to bond with her soldiers. She once tried binding five of the Dremora to totem figurines to make them more compliant but that didn't work either.

"The ritual," Raven continued, "requires the use of specific kinds of bath salts, chalk and candles. Where are you planning to get those?"

"Thanks once again to your mother's detailed notes," Apple answered with a bit smugness, "I'm confident that I can synthesize the necessary materials. With Maddie and Humphrey's help, we'd just need a few unsupervised hours in the Che-myth-try lab."

"This is sounding more plausible by the minute," Raven said as she put her hand on her chin.

"Our main non-volunteer related obstacle left," Apple resumed, "is that the first part of ritual requires the subjects to cleanse their bodies in hot water combined with the bath salts. The subjects are to be completely submerged with the use of breathing tubes for twenty minutes. Traditionally, this is done with a naturally occurring hot spring but that's not required, which is good because the nearest one is over eighty miles away. I checked already. Where are we going to find a tub big enough for five people to be comfortably submerged for twenty minutes?"

"I can help with that," Raven answered with a smirk. "When I make my frequent trips to Meiling's dogo, I sometimes poke my head around the other shops and businesses in Asia Town. The Japanese residents there have some customs related to communal bathing that we would find strange and some of them set up a public bath house. That's bound to have a tub big enough for what we need."

"Hexcellent," Apple said with a wide smile. "I'll ask some of my Royal friends that I know don't want you to be at Evan's lack of mercy to help anyway they can. Between that and your friends, we should be able to get the five volunteers we need."

Raven's only response was to simply go up to Apple and hug her.

"Thank you for figuring out to use this ritual," Raven said.

"I'll do whatever I can to help you," Apple said as she returned the hug. They broke apart. "And I'm not just talking about the ritual. I want to help by also using your great great uncle's magic bow."

Raven's eyes widened at hearing this.

"It will dangerous," Raven said.

"It will more dangerous," Apple countered, "for you to face whatever Evan's going to throw at you without everything and everyone you have on your side. And don't worry about me: Evan's smart enough to know that killing or severely hurting me will go fairy badly for me because of how important I am."

Raven thought this over for about thirty seconds.

"All right, but remember that I warned you," Raven said grimly. "And there's another risk you should be aware of. From what I've read about my great great uncle Oliver, he suffered from mood swings or an unusual form of bi-polar disorder. He'd be fun-loving and wisecracking at moments then broody and incredibly violent at others. That probably didn't carry over when his magic poured into the bow but I can't promise that."

"I'll take my chances," Apple replied with determination.

...

Author's notes: so I feel the need to explain Apple going to use the magic bow because it's a reference to two of my favorite shows from the last several years. The thing with Apple having a talent for archery is a reference to how that's a skill possessed by the version of Snow White from the show Once Upon a Time. The bow originally belonging to a relative of Raven's named Oliver is because Oliver Queen is the identity of the DC Comics superhero Green Arrow. That thing about him having issues with mood swings that might have transferred into his bow will not have future plot relevance: that's just my idea of not funny joke about his portrayal on the show Arrow differs from most others.


	18. Chapter 18

The next morning, Sunday, Raven had finished breakfast in the castleteria and received an anonymous hext telling her that if she cared about her friends, she would meet them at a designated spot by the school's west end. Raven arrived there and was unsurprised to find Evan waiting for her.

"I hear you're gathering a gang to come for me," Raven said.

"I prefer the term cabal," Evan replied. "It's fancier and more sinister sounding. More importantly, you are going to agree to fight my cabal otherwise things will start happening. Things like me accidentally spilling a jar of mutant termites on Cedar or making some friends in the family values crowd then introduce Lilly and Cerise to them in a dark alley."

"Cerise isn't gay," Raven said in surprise at Evan implying that.

"Then why does she act like she has something to hide?" Evan asked. "No matter: I'll find it out and share it with Blondie. She's always looking for the next big scoop."

"I'll agree to fight you," Raven said in panic, quickly deciding to accept Evan's challenge to keep Evan from going after her friends. "I'm not going to fight your forces by myself," Raven coldly stated.

"That's fine," Evan agreed. "We'll fight one week from today: my forces against what you can muster. And when my side wins, you are going to receive a long overdue attitude adjustment about following your destiny."

"See you then," Raven said with sarcastic joy.

...

Almost immediately after Raven and Evan's formal declaration of war, Raven got an urgent from Kitty (of all people) wishing to discuss the how she could help with the Evan situation. She arrived at the spot outside the school that Kitty specified and was surprised to see Duchess with her.

"What's going on here?" Raven asked in a somewhat confrontational tone.

"For one thing, I'm leaving," Kitty playfully said before teleporting away. Duchess had asked her to arrange this meeting and now that it happened, she decided her part was done.

Raven didn't know this but Kitty and Sparrow were pretty good friends due to being the school's top trouble makers. This made Kitty a friend of a friend to Duchess and the only person Duchess knew who orbited both her and Raven's social circles.

"You need my help," Duchess said smugly with folded arms. "Evan is putting together a gang to come after you. He says that he wants to punish you for Legacy Day but I'm pretty sure that's just a cover for him to use you as a target for his sadistic amusement. Fortunately for you, Evan has recently pissed me off so much that I hate him many more times than you: do you know what that makes me?"

"The enemy of my enemy," Raven answered.

"Correct," Duchess replied jubilantly. "Now the way I see it, if I don't get my revenge on Evan, it will suck but I'll be able to move on. You might not have that luxury if Evan succeeds and goes on to do stuff to you. Knowing him, it will be sick stuff: anal stuff. I can't go after Evan myself since he's got allies and weird magic crap I don't understand so my best chance for revenge now is to coordinate with whatever you have in mind for a counterattack."

"Strong sales pitch," Raven said calmly. "I need to let you help me because my ass might literally be on the line." Raven took a deep breath as she readied to say her next words. "There's going to be a meeting later today where I'm going to ask people to help me and we'll go over the general plan. You can come if you answer two questions: what did Evan do to you and what did you mean when you said I'm your best chance now?"

There was a pause as Duchess took a breath as she gathered her thoughts.

"This all started for me," Duchess began, "two days ago when Faebelle tried to recruit me for Evan and gave me black object. The object turned into light, went into me and did this."

Duchess was surrounded by darkness and a representation of the constellation Cygnus (swan) appeared in front of her. Both things disappeared and showed that Duchess was now a humanoid swan creature. She had a mostly white body with gold lines and dots around her chest and arms to form an outline of the constellation Cygnus. Her face had red eyes as well a gold nose (meant to resemble a beak) and a wing-like ornament on the forehead. She had three gold lines along each of her thighs and shins as well as gold-colored shoes. She also had small, feather-like but sturdy frills on her forearms.

Duchess then began hexplaining how she was dragged to Baba Yaga and told her about how her body absorbed the cosmic energy and filtered out the mind altering side effects while leaving out she could now longer turn into a swan (a regular one that is).

"Since Evan inflicted hexcrutiating pain on me," Duchess continued with contained rage as she turned back into a human, "as part of a plan to turn me rabid, I've made my life's purpose making him pay. My first tactic was to play along with his attempt to recruit me, infiltrate his gang then wait for the right opportunity to stick an icepick up his dickhole and when he begs me for the sweet release of death, I give it go him."

Raven's eyes widened in shock at hearing that Duchess was planning to commit murder.

"But Evan is paranoid," Duchness continued, not knowing or caring about Raven's shock, "and told his recruits that he would read our minds as a loyalty test. I stormed out of there in outrage of him reading my mind because if he found out that if I was planning to kill him, he would do a lot worse than kick me out of his gang. That brings us to now."

Raven's shock wore off as she formulated her response.

"I know Evan's a sociopathic piece of shit," Raven began, "and I can't think of a specific reason why you should not kill him but I still think it would be a fairy bad idea, if only because of the consequences that would happen afterwards. If you're going to kill him, I will subdue you and then hand you over to the authorities to show that it wasn't part of my plan."

"Fine, I won't kill him," Duchess agreed with almost tangible annoyance. "I can still do a lot of stuff short of that though, right?"

"Abso-frickin-lutely," Raven answered with glee.

"Hexcellent," Duchess said with a grin that rivaled Kitty's. "One other thing: I told Sparrow about my situation and he said that if you took me onboard, he'd come with."

"Sparrow wants to help me?" Raven asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"No, he wants to help ME," Duchess clarified while pointing to herself. "He's willing to help you as a necessary consequense of that."

"That's so sweet I think I'm gonna slug him," Raven said earning a brief chuckle from Duchess.

"Before we take this any further," Duchess began, "is there anything else you want to say to me? Maybe something about what happened by my locker the other day."

"Oh right, that," Raven said with great dread, knowing what she had to do now to cement the alliance with Duchess. She took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm sorry for how I handled myself back then. This probably won't mean anything, but that wasn't about you. Things are so tense now and I was so sure that you were going to try to get Maddie out of the way that I convinced myself that there was nothing wrong with venting some of my tension by scaring the crap out of you to protect Maddie. Again, sorry."

"Apology accepted," Duchess replied with a slight smile. "And for the record, I never had any intention of going after Maddie."

"Why?" Raven asked skeptically. "And why didn't you just say that?"

"After securing my position as student body co-president," Duchess began, "I have nothing to gain by antagonizing the Rebels by taking away their representitave: hexspecially since I only have the co-president position because Apple made that mistake. Besides, if I get rid of Maddie, who's going to bring tea and scones to the meetings? I figured you and I would verbally fence with each other for a while and then end on the note that I would be keeping Maddie around despite your attempts to intimidate me, not because of them. That was a mistake on my part because you apparently don't care for fencing and were in the mood for of a knife fight."

"You have no idea how right you are," Raven said playfully as she conjured one of her glowing energy daggers and quickly dispersed it. "So we agree to put aside all our earlier crap and focus on Evan for now?"

"Yes," Duchess answered and then extended her arm. "I never thought I'd say this, but I look forward to working with you."

"Likewise on both counts," Raven said as she took Duchess's hand and they shook on their alliance.


	19. Chapter 19

Around 4 o'clock that same day, Raven had called another meeting of the same roughly dozen Rebels from earlier. They gathered by the woods near the school and there were three new people with them: Ashlynn Ella, Kitty Cheshire and Romana Badwolf. Ashlynn had publicly defected to the Rebels yesterday and had been welcomed with open arms. She was currently holding hands with Hunter Huntsman who she'd also come clean about dating. As for Kitty and Romana, Maddie and Cerise asked them to come.

"Thank you for coming," Raven said before adapting a grim hexpression. "I'll cut to the chase: Evan is gathering a cabal to come after me so he can give me, in his words, 'an attitude adjustment' about following my destiny."

"That's most likely a euphemism," Rosabella spoke up, "for some form of mental reconditioning: most likely physic in nature but with Evan, we can't rule out something cruder and more ... physically involved."

"That's what I figured," Raven said. "I'm asking for anyone willing to fight alongside me to do. I'll understand if you say no but would appreciate any help you can provide as non-combantants. On another note, Apple's been asking some of her Royal friends who don't share Evan's physchotic determination to also help us. I also had some people other people offer to help. And Here is everyone else now."

Apple pointed behind the Rebels at the Royal group about to join them. The Royal group consisted of Apple, Briar, Humphrey, Dexter and Daring. Duchess and Sparrow were with them as well.

"Curioser and curioser," Maddie said in astonishment. "What brings the two prince charmings, Duchess and Sparrow to Raven's aid in her time of need?"

Dexter hexplained his reasons from earlier.

"As for me," Daring began, "as much as I personally hate you Raven, which is a lot just so we're clear, as a hero-in-training I'm supposed to do the right thing and the right would be to not stand aside while Evan has his way with you. Besides, if Dex got hurt because of my non-involvement, Mom and Dad would be royally pissed."

"I need all the help I can get," Raven said gratefully and her eyes wondered to Briar. "But I'm not sure that it's a great idea for you to fight with your narcolepsy."

"I can take energy drinks to keep myself up," Briar countered, "then crash when it's safe to do so." Briar then walked up to Raven and placed a worryingly hand on her arm. "I'm going to do what I can to keep you safe."

"Thank you," Raven said as she did her best to hide how this stirred up the feelings in her that she had for Briar: feelings that should be addressed at another time.

"Do you really want to take them on though?" Cerise asked as she pointed her thumb at Duchess and Sparrow.

"Long story short," Raven began, "Evan recently pissed off Duchess to such an hextent that she's willing to work with me against him and talked Sparrow into coming with her. And again, I need all the help I can get."

"But do you trust them?"

"I trust everyone else to keep a fairy close eye on them."

"You should still be careful," Ramona spoke up and glared at Duchess with contempt. "My roommate Justine is easily the nicest person I know. She and Duchess were friends once, but Duchess did something that overtaxed her limits and made her want to cut ties with Duchess."

"Look here fleabag," Duchess angrily began. "What happened with me and Justine is a personal matter between the two of us so keep your wet nose out of it." Duchess's eyes widened as she realized what she'd just said. "Damn it," Duchess cursed as she stomped her foot in frustration. "Now I have to tell you what happened or you'll all think it was worse than what really happened."

"It's probably not worse than what I think," Cedar blurted out, compelled by the magic that forced her to be honest. There was a pause as Duchess took a breath.

"The reason Justine cut ties with me," Duchess began solemnly, "is that I told her that I wanted to be more than friends with her." Everyone's eyes widened in shock at hearing this along with a few audible gasps thrown in. "Justine was very blunt about how she couldn't like me that way and we've been giving eachother a lot of distance since then."

"That's unfortunate, Duchess," Lilly said coyly as she began walking towards Duchess.

"Her rejection was so brutal," Duchess continued, "that it caused me to no longer be interested in girls."

"Never mind then," Lilly said as she backed away.

 _Maybe I shouldn't have brought that up_ , Ramona thought.

"Moving on," Raven said, "we need to sort out who's going to be combantants and non-combantants."

"I'm always ready for a tussle," Sparrow answered with a smirk and a flex of his arm, causing a firm bicep to pop up.

"I'm not," Humphrey said.

"Same here," Lilly agreed. "I'm a lover, not a fighter." She then had sad look on her face. "Or I would be a lover if I had someone to love me." She then looked to Poppy O'hair. "Hint hint."

"Not interested," Poppy said and then faced Raven. "That also applies to me signing up for front-line combat duty."

 _This just isn't my day_ , Lilly thought.

"Same here," Holly agreed. Ginger, Rosabella, Jillian and Darling also opted to be non-combatants, although Raven knew that Darliing and Jillian's refusal was just a cover story. The two of them would be fighting as Kamen Rider Star Knight and the White Knight but couldn't talk about that without hexposing Darling's secret. Raven then took stock of who agreed to be combantants among the Rebels: Cedar, Cerise, Cupid, Maddie, Melody, Hunter, Ashlynn along with Kitty and Ramona.

 _Plus Meiling and Finelope_ , Raven thought. _This is starting to look good._

"Now we need volunteers for something else," Apple said as she took out the notebook originally written by the Evil Queen. Apple then gave a hexplanation about the ritual. "I hope none of you have a problem with brightly colored spandex."

Cupid's eyes widened in shock at hearing that last part.

"What's wrong Cupid?" Raven asked. "I'd say that you look like you've seen a ghost but since I know you've met Spectra, that doesn't really apply."

"Can I see that notebook?" Cupid asked and Apple complied. Cupid flipped through the notebook, then lowered it, rubbed her forehead in bewilderment and looked at Raven. "So your mom was a Super Sentai fan: didn't see that coming."

"I take it," Raven began, "that you're from a world that had these stories."

"Yeah," Cupid answered. "I only know about them because they inspired some real life lynchings of monsters in Japan. Fortunately, none have happened in about twenty years and inciting violence against actual monsters never took off in countries where Super Sentai was adapted into another franchise. I will still help you but I can't take part in this ritual."

 _Plus I'm getting uncomfortable_ , Cupid mentally added, _from just thinking about how my wings would get tucked into one of those suits._

"Okay," Raven agreed then turned towards the rest of the group. "Who does want to take part in it?" Cerise, Dexter, Hunter, Maddie and Briar raised their hands. "We actually have something else in mind for you, Maddie."

Apple reached into her bag and took out a familiar object.

"Where the hex did you get an Astro Switch?" Holly asked, knowing what the object was from being familiar with the exploits of Gentaro Kisarargi, AKA Kamen Rider Fouze.

"Evan gave it to me when he tried to recruit me," Apple hexplained. "He told me that using it would get me closer to making Raven follow her part in my destiny but fortunately, he severely overestimated how far I'd go to do that. I think Maddie should be safe from the mind-altering side effects due to her, let's say, unique mind."

"In other words, she should be fine because she's already crazy," Cedar blurted out uncontrollably.

"That is true," Maddie agreed cheerfully as she took the switch and then stroked her chin in thought. "I wonder if I can use this safely."

"I don't know that," Apple replied, "or how to find out."

"I'm not talking to you," Maddie said and then looked towards the sky. "Come on, tell me."

 **First off Maddie, I'm not completely omniscient and don't know if you'd be safe or not. And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you.**

"Then I'll just have to find out on my own," Maddie said with stern determination and then pressed the red button. Maddie was surrounded by darkness and a representation of the constellation Cassiopeia appeared in front of her. Both subsided quickly and revealed Maddie in her new form.

 **You're even crazier than I thought.**

Maddie was now a purple humanoid with gold metal bars around her waist that went to her knee that looked like they could be the frame for a large skirt. She also had several gold bracelets on each wrist, a gold strapless top and a small gold crown. In her right, she had what looked like a fairly thick silver scepter that was about three feet long ending in a glass globe. On the front of her body were several large dots connected in a pattern that formed the constellation Cassiopeia.

"Does anyone have a guess what constellation she's based on?" Raven asked.

"Cassiopeia, the queen," Humphrey answered.

"Okay," Raven said then looked at Maddie. "How are you, Maddie? Do you feel normal?"

"I have no idea what normal is for me," Maddie replied.

"She's fine," Apple and Raven said at the same time.

Maddie took a swings with her scepter, getting a feel for using it like a club. After a few swings, she pointed it towards the ground and a freezing mist came out, creating a block of ice on the ground.

"Oh, I could get used to this," Maddie said with maniac glee.

"We still need a fifth for the empowering ritual," Raven said. "Any volunteers?" Surprisingly, Daring raised his hand.

"Well aren't you just a bottomless fountain of surprises today," Maddie commented.

"Indeed," Raven agreed. "Why would you want to take part in the ritual?"

"Because the idea of you empowering people who are only on your side," Daring began and quickly looked at Hunter and Cerise, "or people who are kind of on the fence about the Rebel/Royal conflict," he looked at Dexter and Briar, "make me uneasy. I'd feel much less uneasy if at least one of the people in the ritual was 100% against you politically and if that has to be me, then that's what's going to happen."

"Any other volunteers?" Raven asked as she looked at Ashlynn and Melody. Both of them said that they had their own plans for helping out and weren't interested. She then looked to Cedar.

"Sorry Raven," Cedar responded sadly. "Because of the whole 'made of magically animate wood' deal, I'm not a living thing in most senses. If you try to perform this ritual on me, it might throw off the ritual for everyone else."

"I'll pass as well," Sparrow said before being asked. "I don't like or hate you enough to go through with this. Besides, I don't want to be on any team with both Hunter and Dorkster."

"The feeling is fairy mutual," Hunter shot back as he and Dexter glared at Sparrow.

"Well well," Daring said with a smug grin. "Look who just ran out of options."

 _He's right_ , Raven thought. She already talked to Meiling about this and she said no. She felt so confident in her abilities that she wasn't interested. That, and after so long impersonated a Japanese princess, she had no interest in becoming a warrior of Japanese origin.

This brought Raven to the conclusion that she needed all the help she could get and that having Daring be part of this team she was putting together was a necessary compromise for his cooperation.

"You win, Daring," Raven said. "If we all grab an early dinner, we can perform the ritual tonight. How does that sound?"

Cerise, Hunter, Dexter, Briar and Daring all nodded yes.

"As for everyone else," Raven continued, "we'll meet up after school everyday to train for the upcoming battle. Non-combants, start thinking of stuff that could help us."

"For hexample," Kitty chimed in, "with my teleporting, I could do a lot of damage with some explosives: can you help me out there?"

"I can bake pies that explode when their thrown," Ginger answered. Kitty's only response was for her eyes to widen and her grin to become wider.

"This will be my finest hour!" Kitty cheered with her arms raised. "I'm sure that my deviousness combined with Humphrey and Rosabella's brainpower, we'll come up with some interesting ideas."

"Hexcellent," Raven said, starting to feel confident about her chances.

...

Around 6:30 that night, everyone participating in the Sentai ritual had gotten a lift from two horses (Raven's demon horse and one Daring borrowed) pulling carts. They arrived at the public bath house in Asia Town, went to the front desk and paid for the room they wanted.

The five who were going to be in the tub changed into bathing suits that they'd brought with them. Hunter, Daring and Dexter were wearing swim trunks that were colored green, yellow and blue respectively. Cerise was wearing a modest red one-piece along with a black swim cap to conceal her wolf ears but if anyone asked, it was because her hair did weird things when it got wet. Lastly, Briar was wearing a provocative pink two-piece.

 _I am so glad she volunteered for this_ , Raven thought as she looked at her crush in such a revealing outfit and struggled to conceal her pleasure. Cerise was similarly pleased to see Daring's uncovered and muscular chest.

Apple had added the special bath salts to the tub and handed the five participants snorkels. The five went (while Raven took a quick pic of Briar while her back was turned), lowered their heads and inserted the snorkels.

Apple and Raven kept themselves for the twenty minutes everyone else was in the tub by placing and lighting candles around the room. When the time was up, Raven nudged everyone to get them out of the tub, waking Briar up from a nap she'd taken. The five of them got out, toweled off and were instructed to set by the five points of a large pentagram that Apple had drawn in chalk on the floor.

Apple began chanting the incantation from the Evil Queen's notebook while Raven closed her eyes and followed the instructions needed to tap into the Sentai energy. After about a minute of concentrating, Raven's efforts paid off a large energy orb appeared in her hands made up of swirling lights of red, blue, green, yellow, pink, black and white.

Apple continued the incantation for another few minutes. Apple completed that part and this caused five spectral animals made of black light with occasional red streaks to appear and float around the room. These were the Dremora spirits that were drawn forth from the ritual.

"Wow," Cerise said in awe as she looked at the spirits and noticed that the spirits were based on a wolf, a bear, a fox, a lion and a hawk.

"Totally," Briar agreed. She wasn't sure how, but she knew that she had nothing to fear from these spirits. Everyone else also so had the same unexplained feeling of safety. Each of the spirits then gravitated towards one of the participants: fox to Briar, bear to Hunter, Hawk to Dexter, Lion to Daring and finally, wolf to Cerise.

"That's an odd spirit given your story," Daring commented in confusion.

"I know," Cerise lied as she agreed with him.

"Now Raven," Apple instructed. Raven knew this was the signal to add in the Sentai energy. She threw the energy orb into the center of the pentagram which then dispersed over the participants.

The dremora spirits flew behind each of the humans they'd selected and then flew into them to complete the bonding process. They were surrounded by flashes of light which subsided and revealed them to be wearing Super Sentai style suits: Dexter in blue, Hunter in green, Briar in pink, Daring in yellow and Cerise in red.

"IT WORKED!" Apple shouted in jubilation and with raised arms at this hexperiment succeeding. Everyone sitting then stood up, the five feeling like they were surging with power.

All the suits had wavey black lines that travelled diagonally along the arms and legs. The suits also had three, thick black lines resembling claw marks on each side of the torso and in the center of the torso was the symbol for the Dremora spirits: a black eye symbol that consisted of a small black diamond that if it was a compass needle pointed south west and a thick, black line with two small ridges that curved around it.

Each helmet silver areas around the mouths and black visors around the eyes. Each helmet was stylized to resemble the heads of each of the animals: snouts, jaw lines, ears on the backs and in Cerise's case, two small red things on each side of the helmet meant to resemble tufts of hair.

Raven took out her phone and started recording this for posterity while the five started looking at each other.

"Interesting," Dexter said aloud as he took this in.

"I could get used to this," Cerise said an almost audible grin.

"Same here," Briar piped in, matching her hexitement.

"I hope I do," Daring moaned. He did not like how the suits didn't even come close to lining up with what he would consider a heroic appearance.

Raven then showed her phone recording to them so each one get a look at what their own helmets looked like. Everyone took this in for a while, Hunter not having any strong feelings.

"I think you need a team name," Apple spoke up. "I have one in mind if your interested."

"Go ahead," Dexter said.

"Based on what I've read," Apple continued, "a good team name would be Spirit Beast Sentai Dremoranger. And each of you individually would be Dremora Green, Dremora Pink and so on."

"I've got nothing better," Briar said. The other Dremorangers agreed to this.

Raven and Apple smiled with pride as they looked at the Dremorangers. They were both hexstatic at both pulling off this new ritual and increasing the strength of what could be considered Raven's defense force.

 _Let's hope it's enough for whatever Evan comes up with_ , Raven thought.

...

Author's notes: so I'm stopping the story here and will start another in like a month that will cover preparations for the big battle and the battle itself.

If the stuff with about Super Sentai and the Dremorangers sounds familiar to some of you who've never heard of it, that's because Super Sentai is the basis for the various incarnations of Power Rangers. This part is important: there will be no giant robot stuff.

Lastly, I commissioned a guy on Deviant Art to draw a pic of what Cerise's suit looks like. The link will be in my profile.


End file.
